IGO METEOROLOGICAL PEHIODICITT. - 



the fearful drought extending over many years, in the middle of 

 the 18th century (1740 to 1750), as shown in Mr. Symonds's 

 work ; and we may mention that the drought of 1789 has its coun- 

 terpart in England in 1788 ; that of 1814-15 here, in 1813-14 

 there ; that of 1827 here, in 1826 there ; that of 1837-38 here, in 

 1837-38 there ; that of 18415-47 here, in 1844-45 there. Many 

 other instances might be given, but these are enough. (See 

 diagraoii). 



in Africa, Livingstone records the drought of 1846-7 as 

 follows : — 



(" South Africa," pages 17 and 18.) 



" During the first year of our residence at Chonuaue (1845) 

 we were visited by one of those droughts which occur from time to 

 time in even the most favoured districts of Africa. 



" In the second year (1846) scarce any rain fell ; the third was 

 marked by the same extraordinary drought, and during these two 

 years the whole rainfall did not amount to 10 inches. The 

 Kolobeng ran dry, and so many fish died that the hyenas from 

 the country collected to the feast and were unable to clear away 

 the putrid mass. A large old alligator was left high and dry in 

 the mud among the victims. The fourth year, 1848, was equally 

 nnpropitious, the rain being insufficient to bring the grain to 

 maturity ; needles lying out of doors for months did not rust ; 

 and a mixture of sulphuric acid and water, used in a galvanic 

 battery, parted with all its moisture to the air, instead of imbibing 

 more from the atmosphere, as it would have done in England. I 

 put the bulb of a thermometer three inches under the soil in 

 the sun at mid- day, and found that the temperature was from 

 132° to 134°. Rain would not fall, and dew there was none." 



Again, in India we have 1837 standing out as their most 

 dreadful year of drought and famine.* 



Surely we have here enough to justify a strong suspicion, to 

 say no more, that we have waves of drought passing over the 

 earth, that we have an outside cause for the phenomena that has 

 puzzled us so long — a phenomenon which we have every reason 

 to believe is subject to laws as definite as those which hold the 

 planets in their places, and the knowledge of which is fairly 

 within our reach, if we have but patience to take the uphill way 

 that leads to it. IS'or must we at once assume that, if a period 

 is proven at one place, we shall find the same at another. There 

 is, I think, unmistakeable evidence of several involved periods ; 

 out of the combination of these with local circumstances come 

 the results there observed ; like the vibrations in musical notes, 



* In 1872 rain almost deserted Bengal, and fell in great quantity in 

 iS'orthern India, while the rainfall of 1873 was the lowest on record, with 

 the single exception of 1837; and 1862, the very dry year in Sydney, was 

 also a year of drought in Central Kussia. 



