1870.] Meteorology. 547 



years an area of relative depression existed in Lower Bengal which 

 took its rise at the beginning of the south-west monsoon in April. 

 " Its position was different in the two years, being in the former in 

 the north-west corner of the Bay of Bengal, in the latter in the 

 hilly country to the west of the Delta. It influenced the vapour- 

 bearing winds from the south by deflecting them towards it ; and 

 necessarily, by determining an ascending current, it produced an 

 excessive rainfall to the north of its position, the maximum fall 

 being at from 50 to 150 miles distance from the place where 

 the barometer was lowest. Finally, it impeded the passage of the 

 vapour-bearing winds to the north-west provinces, and thus deprived 

 that region of a great part of its usual annual supply." 



Considering the extreme importance to India of the periodical rain- 

 fall, papers like this of Mr. Blanford's are of great value and interest. 



The Third Annual Keport of Mr. Blanford's office has also 

 appeared; it shows a steady progress in the way of systematic 

 organization of the various observing stations in Bengal. We may 

 now hope that the example shown by this Presidency will soon be 

 followed in the other districts of Hindostan. 



M. Harold Tarry has published notices of the fall of red rain 

 in Italy on various occasions. The papers first appeared in the 

 1 Bulletin of the Association Scientifique,' and then in the ' Comptes 

 Kendus.' His object is to prove that the occurrence is due to 

 previous dust-storms in the desert of Sahara, and not to the advent 

 of cosmical dust from the regions of space, as Arago and Quetelet 

 formerly maintained. He has examined three recent instances of 

 the phenomenon, viz. March 10, 1869, March 24, 1869, Feb- 

 ruary 14, 1870. He says that the sequence of circumstances is 

 the same in all cases. A barometrical depression and a storm 

 advances from north to south across western Europe to Africa, 

 where the sand of the Sahara is set in motion in clouds of dust. 

 A few days subsequently a reverse action takes place : a storm 

 advances from Africa to the south of Europe, carrying the dust 

 with it, which comes to the earth with the rain. 



The paper is very interesting, but we must say that M. Tarry 

 has not quite proved his case as yet. 



The later numbers of the ' Journal of the Austrian Meteoro- 

 logical Society ' do not contain much that is suitable for extraction 

 for this Chronicle. The editors have adopted the practice of giving 

 abstracts of meteorological data from isolated stations, and these 

 cannot be rendered intelligible without the insertion of a large 

 amount of tabular matter. The districts for which such informa- 

 tion is afforded are very various. M. Eayet's paper " On the 

 Meteorology of the Isthmus of Suez " is reproduced, in abstract, 

 from the 'Atlas Meteorologique ' for 1868. Then follow several 

 papers by M. AVojeikoff " On the Meteorology of Kussia," which he 



