80 
large portion of the British Islands lying between lat. 52° 
and 58°, the mean temperature of the five days was at 
least 6°70 under the average of the season, and in the 
central portion of this district, as at York and Barrow-in- 
Furness, it was 8°°3 under the average. On the other 
hand, in Jersey the defect from the mean was only 1°°5, 
and in Shetland 2°°5. At Barrow-in-Furness, on the 12th, 
the maximum temperature was only 39°0. On this day 
snow fell over the higher districts of central and southern 
Scotland, in many places to the depth of several inches, 
and the cold was so intense that swallows and some other 
birds perished in thousands. 
Meanwhile torrents of rain were being poured down | 
continuously over wide districts of northern and central 
England. These rains were heaviest and most wide- 
spread on the 11th, 12th, and 13th, on each of these days 
upwards of an inch being recorded in many places. Mr. 
Scott states in the Weekly Weather Report that during 
these three davs falls of 4°83 inches occurred at Church- 
stoke, Montgomeryshire ; 4°36 inches at Hereford ; 4:15 
inches at Pershore, Worcestershire ; 3°38 inches at Ross, 
Herefordshire ; and 3°44 inches at Fassaroe, county 
Wicklow. Extensive and disastrous floods were the 
consequence. The railway traffic between Worcester, 
Hereford, and Malvern was suspended, and the whole of 
the united valley of the Severn and Teme, in the neigh- 
bourhood of Worcester, was laid under water. At Glou- 
cester large numbers of the inhabitants were driven from 
their homes. The valley of the Trent presented the 
appearance of a vast lake, and the Midland Railway 
between Nottingham and Derby was submerged. 
mense damage was done about Chester and along the 
estuary of the Dee, over the low grounds bordering the | 
Humber, and over extensive tracts of Yorkshire. 
A noteworthy feature of the storm is shown in the 
weather maps for the morning of the 13th, when the area 
of low pressure extending from west to east over the 
south of England was broken up, and showed three satel- 
lite cyclones with still lower pressures, having their 
centres the first to the west of Brest, the second over 
Somersetshire, and the third over Kent,—these all 
evidencing great, well-marked, and sharp local differences 
in the distribution of temperature and vapour. Further, 
a most remarkable satellite cyclone was seen near 
Perpignan, in the south of France, which in all proba- 
bility represented the small cyclone or tornado that about 
seven o'clock of the previous evening wrought such 
dreadful havoc in Madrid, causing 32 deaths, seriously 
wounding large numbers, variously estimated from 320 to 
520 persons, and wrecking hundreds of houses. The area 
swept over by the tornado was comparatively limited, but 
within that area, as in the lower Carabanchel, not a house 
was left undamaged and many were wholly blown down, 
and hardly any of the inhabitants escaped uninjured. The 
storm.was preceded by a sultry atmosphere, a heavy bank 
of black clouds in the north, and torrents of rain, and as 
so frequently occurs with the tornadoes of America, 
many buildings would appear to have fallen to pieces 
from an explosive force from within as the tornado 
passed overhead. 
On the 14th violent cyclones or tornadoes occurred at 
Krossen, near Frankfort on the Oder, at Linz on the 
Danube, and at Lonato, n<ar Brescia, wrecking houses, 
and causing great destruction in other ways; and storms 
of less, but yet of considerable severity are reported from 
other parts of the Continent. It is to be hoped that 
some meteorologist of mark will undertake the discussion 
of these remarkable storms, so as to lead, if possible, to 
some knowledge of the peculiar meteorological conditions 
of Europe out of which they originated. In this discus- 
sion no little help will be given by the high-level observa- 
tories now established at so many points over Europe. 
In the United States on May 11 a tornado passed over 
Kansas City, Missouri, destroyed the court-house and 
Im- | 
NATORE 
[| May 27, 1886 
other buildings, and partly demolished the bridge over 
the Missouri River, and thence pursued an easterly 
course to Pennsylvania, killing in its course about 90 
persons, and injuring 300. On the night of the 32th ter- 
rible destruction was done by tornadoes in Ohio, Indiana, 
and Illinois. From 4 to 5 inches of rain fell within three 
hours, fully twenty miles of the Little Miami Railway 
were washed away, and at Xenia, where the waterspout 
was most destructive, 36 persons were drowned, 80 
injured, and more than 100 houses destroyed. On the 
14th another series of tornadoes carried destruction 
through Ohio and Indiana; and on the 15th a tornado, 
which appears to have formed on Lake Erie, penetrated 
100 miles into Ohio. Its path was about 500 yards wide, 
and it levelled everything with the ground; killed 41 
persons, and injured several hundreds. These, with 
other tornadoes of less severity occurring in Kansas and 
elsewhere, are stated to be the most severe and destruc- 
tive storms or tornadves hitherto experienced in the 
United States, and the losses are estimated at about 
5,000,000 dollars. 
The detailed reports of these remarkable storms will 
no doubt be prepared and circulated with the fulness and 
satisfactoriness which characterise the work and publica- 
tions of the United States Signal Office ; and, consider- 
ing the striking simultaneousness of occurrence of these 
American and European storms from May Ir to 15, 
Gen. Hazen would, if the Reports were acco npanied and 
illustrated by international weather maps of the northern 
hemisphere from May 7 to 16, lay meteorologists under a 
deep obligation. 
\ 
CRETACEOUS METAMORPHIC ROCKS 
T is now a good many years since Prof. J. D. Whitney 
announced the existence of Cretaceous sediments in 
California which had undergone metamorphism into 
various crystalline rocks. ‘The attention of geologists is 
once more directed to that region by the recent work of 
the Geological Survey of the United States. Mr. George 
F. Becker, whose admirable monograph on the great 
Comstock Lode has reflected such lustre on that Survey, 
has more recently been intrusted with the investigation 
of the quicksilver deposits of California. This research 
when completed will form the subject of another mono- 
graph in the same great series of publications. But in 
the meanwhile some results of such startling importance 
in metamorphism have been obtained that Mr. Becker 
has published in the American Fournal of Sczence a brief 
preliminary outline of them.” It appears that the inquiry 
into the nature and origin of the rocks in question has 
been carried on partly by examination of their structure 
and relations in the field, partly by chemical analysis and 
partly by the study of microscopic sections. In short, all 
the appliances of modern geology have been enlisted in 
the investigation. 
The area embraced by the rocks which are stated to 
have undergone metamorphism is estimated at 3000 
square miles. The rocks are determined by fossils to be 
approximately of Neocomian age. They consist chiefly 
of sandstone and arkose lying upon and probably for the 
most part derived from granite. Their quartz-grains are 
cemented in great measure with carbonate of lime, and 
there are likewise clastic fragments of orthoclase, plagio- 
clase, biotite, hornblende, and other minerals of the 
granite. d 
stones gradations are traceable into varieties wherein a 
process of recrystallisation has been set up, but has ceased 
before the fragmental character has been wholly effaced. | 
In this process one of the first stages 1s often the resolu-— 
tion of the clastic grains into crystalline aggregates from | 
which new minerals are built up. Thusthe quartz-grains_ 
have had their surfaces so altered that an envelope of 
From ordinary unaltered fossiliferous sand- 
