Miscellaneous Intelligence. 433 



Mr. Jerdan stated that there were two kinds of gutta percha — one 

 white, the other black. The former was the best for modelling. He 

 had written to Mr. Brooke, of Borneo, on the subject, who informed 

 him that an unlimited supply might be obtained from that country. — Mr. 

 Crawfurd said it was not hard till after it was submitted to the heat of 

 boiling water. The proper way of pronouncing the word was gutta 

 pertsha, which was a Malav term, and signified ragged gum. 



7. Report on Atmospheric Waves; by W. R. Birt, (?roc. Brit. 

 Assoc, for 1847, Athen., No. 1028.)— The author in introducing his 

 fourth Report on this subject observed, that in accordance with the res- 

 olution adopted at the last Meeting of the Association, about thirty sets 

 of observations had been obtained from various stations in the British 

 islands ; the extremes of the area embraced being the Orkneys and 

 Jersey in one direction, and Galway and Dover in the other. As in- 

 stances of the increasing interest manifested on this subject, he remark- 

 ed that he had been furnished with curves from stations in the north, 

 where the barometric movements had been considered to result from 

 the transit of the great November wave. Each of these curves was 

 referred to the same period ; namely, from the 2nd to the 17th of 

 November ; and the observers invariably regarded the regular rise and 

 fall that occurred between these epochs as indicating a well-marked 

 return of the great symmetrical wave. Mr. Birt, after noticing the re- 

 markable circumstances under which the wave returned last autumn— 

 so remarkable that they had no small tendency to mask the waves m 

 the southeastern part of the island— stated that the projected curve at 

 London strikingly developed its essential features; the Jive subordinate 

 waves were well seen, although the inflexions were not strong, owing 

 to the small altitude of the wave on its last return, scarcely exceeding 

 half an inch— its whole development occurring above thirty inches 

 prevented the boldness of the inflexions particularly noticed on the oc- 

 casion of its return in 1842. The author then proceeded to notice the 

 essential features of the curves as obtained from observations al Kama 

 gate, St. Vigean's, near Arbroath, east coast of Scotland, the Orkneys 

 and Western Isles, Applegarth Manse, Dumfr.es-sh.re, Largs, Limer- 

 ick, Galway, Helstone in Cornwall, and St. Holier s Jersey. 



Our limits will not permit us to give in detail the resemblances and 

 differences of these curves, exhibiting, as they do, the distribution of 

 pressure around Great Britain and Ireland, which the author traced 

 from the southeastern point towards the northwest: but the report 

 *UI be printed in the forthcoming volume of the W^**** 

 may, however, here notice that attention was called to he F'nc.ple 

 Which the author laid down in his report of last year, that he baro 

 metric curve, including a complete rise and fall at any one stat.on, does 

 not represent any reality in nature, but is the effect of two or "™*?» 

 terns of waves or currents moving in different d.rections and cross ng 

 each other at various angles." He also pointed out the great extent of 

 oscillation (nearly double) observed in the northwest as compared with 

 the southeasterly observations. The great wave commenced on he 

 2nd of November; at the northern stations it culminated on the l^th , 

 at the southeastern on the 9th; and it terminated on the 1 t\h. . n « ex- 

 plaining the differences of epoch as indicating the transit of the crest 



Secono Seriks, Vol. IV, No. 12— Nov., 1847. 55 



