258 report — 1878. 



extent of a year or two on either side of the sunspot epochs. On an 

 average, however, the rainfall epochs occur somewhat later than the sun- 

 spot epochs. 



66. The rainfall and sunspot observations being themselves probably 

 but rough approximations, the evidence of 'a connection between them is 

 necessarily qualitative rather than quantitative. But, considering how 

 apparently capricious an element the rainfall is, it is difficult to account 

 for the results which have been obtained for widely distant countries and 

 under all conditions of climate, except upon the supposition that they 

 are the manifestations of a general law. The number of rainfall returns 

 is no doubt small, but it is to be remembered that they are all that are 

 available, that they are not a selection, and that virtually they have been 

 obtained by haphazard. Moreover, the experience of seven years has 

 shown that as the number of rainfall returns increased, so did the evidence 

 of a connection between sunspots and rainfall. 



67. The present discussion has been almost exclusively confined to the 

 four cycles from 1824 to 1867, because it is supposed that the sunspot 

 observations for those years are superior to earlier observations. But it 

 must be remarked that exactly similar results have been obtained for 

 previous cycles. The rainfall variations for the cycle 1811-23 show a 

 most marked coincidence with the sunspot variations, and similar rainfall 

 results have been obtained for still earlier cycles. Further, the variations 

 in the levels of the Elbe from 1728 to 1868, and in those of the Rhine from 

 1770 to 1835 were as favourable in the last century as they have been in 

 the present. The cycle 1868-78 is not yet complete, but judging from the 

 rainfalls in 1870-73, and from the droughts which have occurred since 

 1875, it is not improbable that the general results will be the same as for 

 previous cycles. We know already that the mean rainfall at six stations 

 in the southern hemisphere from 1865 to 1877 is favourable. 



Report on Observations of Luminous Meteors during the Year 1877- 

 78, by a Committee consisting of James Glaisheu, F.R.S., <&c, 

 R. P. Greg, F.Q.S., F.R.A.S., C. Brooke, F.R.S., Prof. 

 G-. Forbes, F.R.S.E., Walter Flight, D.Sc., F.O.S., and Prof. 

 A. S. Herschel, M.A., F.R.A.S., (Reporter). 



The meteoric events of the greatest interest during the past year, of which, 

 as far as space will permit, the principal characters are described in this 

 Report, consist in part of the successive appearances of a rather unusual 

 number of very grand and remarkable fireballs which have been seen in 

 different parts of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and which have been 

 very satisfactorily recorded in those countries ; and in part also of some 

 new observations of meteor showers, and of some falls of aerolites, which 

 have added to the increasing store of knowledge of the nature and dis- 

 tribution of those astronomical phenomena which we possess. 



A stonefall of considerable abundance and importance took place on 

 the 13th of October, 1877, at Soko-Banja, N.E. of Alexinatz, the circum- 



