76 Transactions of the South African Philosophical Society. 
former may be dismissed in a very few words; saving for the study 
of local details its geographical position, meteorologically speaking, is 
the worst possible. A very much smaller mass than Table Mountain 
close by would be fatal to the general utility of its wind registers. 
Durban I have not seen, although from maps and descriptions it 
would appear .to be as good a site as one could expect for a coast 
station, for all meteorological observations saving those of the winds. 
A perusal of the most excellent Annual Report of the Government 
Astronomer to the Colony of Natal establishes this very clearly. But 
I have attempted the construction of wind-roses from the data of the 
Natal Reports with most indifferent success. The drawback seems 
to be that Durban is screened almost completely from winds having 
a westerly component by hills at the back. 
Granting that every place has both an annual and a diurnal wind 
circulation peculiar to itself, either or both may be obliterated or 
masked by perturbations set up in consequence of geographical con- 
ditions. Thus, on a coast, land- and sea-breezes may intervene ; in 
the interior of continents mountain masses may deflect the wind 
currents and even reverse them altogether, or smaller perturbations 
may be introduced by the vicinity of lakes and large rivers. Kimberley 
possesses none of these drawbacks: it is very nearly on the central 
line of the continent; the land is gently undulating and little culti- 
vated ; there are neither large rivers nor lakes anywhere near, and 
neither hills nor mountains of any importance for hundreds of miles. 
It is to be expected, then, that the train of causes operating on the 
movements of the atmosphere over Kimberley should be the simplest 
conceivable, and that it would not be necessary (as in the case of 
India, for example) to make a number of more or less approximate 
assumptions as to the precise weight to be attached to numerous and 
widely varying perturbations, before laying bare such a train of causes 
in its rudimentary aspects. 
Lastly, the Kenilworth observatory has no guarantee of permanent 
existence: it may come to an end at any time, and the chance never 
occur to me or to any one else of discussing the observations. Such 
a possible fate is to be deplored, but it has to be reckoned with, and 
for that reason this sketch has been attempted with what may be 
accounted a minimum of material. 
INSTRUMENTS, Etc. 
Kenilworth is situated about three miles N.N.E. of Kimberley in — 
approximate H. long. 24° 40’, §. lat. 28° 40’, at an altitude of some- 
