Proceedings of the British Association. 22/ 



of the meeting, in order to facilitate the proceedings of the Magnetic 

 Conference, Sir John did not think it necessary to occupy time by 

 reading it at length ; he, therefore, merely read the conclusion, which 

 contained the request of the Committee that the necessary grant 

 of money should be continued. One branch of the Report, however, 

 had not been ready in time to be printed with the rest — viz.— 



' On Atmospheric Waves,' by Mr. W. R. Birt. — The author 

 divided his Report into three parts. In the first he noticed the 

 regular rise of the barometer every month above 30 inches ; and the 

 apparent regularity of the flowing of the waves producing the maxima 

 and minima. In the second, the recurrence of the symmetrical wave 

 observed in November, 1842, in November, 1843, and in October 

 and November, 1844. And in the third he gave the latest results 

 of the examination of the systems of waves traversing Europe from 

 the 6th to the 11th of November, 1842 ; being a continuation of the 

 Report presented at the last meeting. The Astronomer Royal 

 having shown, in the volume of Magnetical and Meteorological Ob- 

 servations made at the Observatory, Greenwich, during 1841 and 

 1842, that in every month the barometer rose above 30 inches, Mr. 

 Birt found the same results upon comparing the observations made 

 at Toronto with those at Greenwich ; so that, on both sides of the 

 Atlantic, the barometer rises above 30 inches every month : and 

 a closer comparison appears to indicate that the rise occurs twice 

 every month. The author exhibited the barometric altitudes at 

 several epochs, tabulated so as to show the force of these deductions ; 

 and, by tinted and coloured diagrams, he exhibited the connection 

 that existed between the force and direction of the wind and the transit 

 of these waves. He also traced the consequences that should result 

 in many varied respects on the supposition of such waves passing 

 along, and showed that these were in strict harmony with the 

 actually observed phenomena at Greenwich, Prague, Munich and 

 Toronto: and, as the latest result of his researches on this new 

 and curious branch of inquiry, he exhibited a tabular view of five 

 waves — viz. two from Scilly to Longstone, one from South Bph 

 to St. Catherine's Point, one from Glasgow to St. Catherine's and 

 from Brussels to Geneva, and one from Dublin to Bardsay ; in which 

 he compares the epochs of transits of the anterior trough, the crest 



