H. W. Dove on Rains in the Temperate Zone. 397 
Two more pieces of bone remain to be noticed: they are about 
three inches in length, are longitudinally fractured and a large 
portion of each is gone; they have some indications of cancella- 
ted structure near one of the ends, and bear some resemblance to 
the bones of the fore-arm of a Saurian reptile, the form of the 
longer bone comes punta with that of the ulna, and the lower 
extremities of both agreeing in proportions with an ulna and ra- 
dius; the ae portion of the supposed radius is nearly all gone. 
Arr. XXXVII.—On Distribution os a inthe Temperate 
; by H. W. Dov 
In the Meteorological Annual of France for 1850 observations 
for ten years on the quantity of rain falling in Algiers are given 
by Don, which show that the quantity diminishes almost regu- 
larly “a January to July, and then regularly increases to De- 
cember. This regularity is seen in the number of falls of rain, 
for in these ten years there were in January 88 rainy days, in 
December — in July, on the other hand, only a single one in 
1844 ese proportions hold good for the Canaries and Azores, 
they apply, too, even in the south of Europe, for in Funchal the 
quantity of rain diminishes from 92’ in January to 0-9 in July. 
In St. Michael it is found after ten years of observation, to be 
four times greater in January than in July. In Lisbon the pro- 
portions are for December and July 55:2, in Palermo 37: 2h 
Naples has in March and October 49’”, in July not 7”. Even 
Rome the fall of rain is ten times more in re Pe than in jae. 
This periodical law is seen not only in the measurement of the 
fall of water, but in every accompanying phenomenon of tempera- 
ture. After three months of almost perfectly clear weather only 
rarely interrupted by a tempest, the rains begin in Rome, on the 
10th of October, though often sooner, and last, with fierce storms, 
almost without interruption, till the end of December. They 
diminish a little towards spring, so that the whole winter is rather 
a changeable than cold season, a continuous change from ‘T'ra- 
montane to Sirocco. Even if we cannot divide the year, as do 
the Indians on the Orinoco, into a season of sunshine and clouds, 
yet the contrast of the rainless hot months and the continuously 
rainy winter is very marked. The beginning and end of this 
rainy period are usually marked by storms; Lucretius says of it: 
“ Auctumnoque magis, stellis a apta, 
Concutitur cceli domus undique, tellus ; 
re enim desunt ignes, amiga bee - ore 
* Annalen der Physik, No, 94. Translated for this Journal by Dr. Rosengarten, 
