ADDiirss. Ixxiii 



Lycli. TIio uictooric origin of these iron niasscs from Ovifak has Leen 

 called in question by Lawrence Smith ; and it is no douht possible tliat they 

 may have been raised by upheaval from the interior of the earth. I have 

 indeed myself shown by a magucto-chemical process tluit metallic iron, in 

 particles so fine that they have never yet been actnally seen, is everywhere 

 diffused through the Miocene basalt of Slieve Mish in Antrim, and may 

 likewise be discovered by careful search in almost all igneous and in many 

 raetamorphic rocks. These observations have since been verified by lleuss in 

 the case of the Bohemian basalts. But, as regards the native iron of Ovifak, 

 the weight of evidence appears to be in favour of the conclusion, at which M. 

 Daubree, after a careful discussion of the subject, has arrived — that it is 

 really of meteoric origin. This Ovifak iron is also remarkable from con- 

 taining a considerabe amount of carbon, partly combined with the iron, 

 partly diffused through the metallic mass in a form resembling coke. In 

 connexion with this subject, I must refer to the able and exhaustive memoirs 

 of Maskelync on the Bust! and other aerolites, to the discovery of vanadium 

 by E. Apjohn in a meteoric iron, to the interesting observations of Sorby, 

 and to the researches of Daubree, Wohler, Lawrence Smith, Tschermak, and 

 others. 



The important services which the Tvew Observatory has rendered to 

 meteorology and to solar physics have been fuUy recognized ; and Mr. Gassiot 

 has had the gratification of witnessing the final success of his long and 

 noble efforts to place this observatory upon a permanent footing. A phy- 

 sical observatory for somewhat similar objects, but on a larger scale, is in 

 course of erection, under the guidance of M. .Janssen, at Fontenay in France, 

 and others are springing up or already exist in Germany and Italy. It is 

 earnestly to be hoped that this country will not lag behind in providing 

 phj'sical observatories on a scale worthy of the nation and commensurate 

 Avith the importance of the object. On this question I cannot do better 

 than refer to the high authority of Dr. Balfour Stewart, and to the views he 

 expressed in his able address last year to the Pliysical Section. 



Weather telegraphy, or the reporting by telegraph the state of the weather 

 at selected stations to a central office, so that notice of the probable approacli 

 of storms may be given to tlie seaports, has become in this country an 

 organized system ; and considering the little progress meteorology has made 

 as a science, the results may be considered to be on the whole satisfactory. Of 

 tlie warnings issued of late years, four out of five were justified by the 

 occurrence of gales or strong winds. Few storms occurred for which no 

 warnings had been given ; but unfortunately among these were some of the 

 licaviest gales of the period. The stations from which daily reports are sent 

 to the meteorological office in London cmbi'ace the whole coast of "Western 

 l']urope, including the Shetland Isles. It ajipears that atmospheric disturb- 

 ances seldom cross the Atlantic without being greatly altered in charncter, 



