TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION A. 567 



indicate a way to detect and explain a great nmny peculiarities of our climate. 

 Many of these have hitherto either not been paid attention to, or have been con- 

 sidered as slight anomalies ; yet they seem to be most permanent and important 

 features. 



A few of these anomalies— for instance, one consisting of two unimportant 

 maxima, separated by a more or less apparent minimum in April — spread over the 

 whole of Europe. Is it altogether impossible that one or more of such features 

 are not confined within the limits of Europe ? Should any of them be found to 

 prevail over a whole hemisphere, or farther still, ought we not to look beyond the 

 earth for their origin ? 



Other anomalies, however, have a smaller range. Two remarkable instances of 

 this are two very pronounced mimima which characterise the summer in western 

 Europe. The more important one at the end of July, separating two nearly equal 

 maxima in the middle of June and the middle of August, is strongly prominent on 

 the coasts of the Atlantic and the North Sea, and slowly decreases in the centre of 

 Europe, dying out at the Russian frontier. The other one, a similar minimum, 

 about a month earlier, is also strongest on the north-western shores of our continent, 

 but dies out much sooner : it can hardly be detected beyond the eastern frontier of 

 France. Here we have, I venture to aihrm, two effects of causes which, whatever 

 they may he, must lie to the west of us, in the Atlantic or beyond. 



Another feature, on the contrary, a minimum in the second half of December, 

 with a very decided rise of temperature towards the end of the year, which is very 

 ■characteristic for the extreme east of our continent, dies out long before it could 

 reach the middle of Russia. We owe this effect apparently to something in Asia, 

 •or beyond. 



I forego to discuss in this short abstract some other advantages arising from 

 a systematic discussion of temperature curves. Such are a possible indication of 

 something being wrong in the exposures of thermometers : the possibility of getting 

 very good results with what would hitherto have been considered absolutely 

 insufficient material; the possibility of giving a near approximation to normal 

 temperatures for any station a priori, &c. 



But what I think is principally shown is — 



(1) That it is not so much the general knowledge of the temperature of a place 

 that is interesting as the irregularities, even such small ones as one is tempted at 

 first to ascribe to errors of observation or such like causes ; 



(2) That here is an excellent way to find out, not indeed what the ultimate 

 causes of such irregularities are, but in which direction to look for them. One 

 fflance at the diagrams generally instantly shows that some interesting anomaly, 

 such as I gave a few instances of, originates to the west, the east, or the south of 

 ■our continent. 



5. The Climatology of Canada. B>j R. F. Stupart. 



6. The Great Lakes as a Sensitive Barometer. By F. Napier Denison, 



Toronto Observatory. 



For many years fishermen and sailors upon the great lakes have noticed with 

 intense interest the rapid rise and fall of the water, most marked at the head 

 of shallow lagoons or bays. The phenomenon is not uncommon, having been 

 ably studied upon the Swiss lakes by Professor Forel and his predecessors, 

 Duillier, De Saussure, and others, where it obtained the name of ' Seiche,' and also 

 by Mr. Russell, F.R.S., upon Lake George, New South Wales. _ The writer's 

 attention was first drawn to this subject last summer, while in the vicinity of Lake 

 Huron, where a set of observations were taken. Upon returning to Toronto, b)^ 

 permission of Mr. Stupart, Director of the Meteorological Service, a simple instru- 

 ment was devised for automatically recording these oscillations, and was set u]d at 

 the mouth of the Humber River, near Toronto. Shortly afterwards a similar 



