Anniversary Address. 45 



multiples of them nearly tlie same meteorological occurrences 

 took place. 



I am informed by a close observer, tbat the year 1819 was 

 distinguished by just such a season as this — that was immediately 

 after a great disruption of ice in the Arctic regions which pro- 

 duced just such changes as we have experienced here. Of course 

 we cannot know what took place in the Antarctic regions at that 

 time. But having observed that in this part of the world 

 occurrences are noted at about six months' date from the time of 

 similar occurrences in the Northern hemisphere, it is not without 

 a show of reason that one might conclude that the irregularities 

 of 1819, which was a marked year in this hemisphere, may have 

 nearly corresponded with those of the same years in the other 

 hemisphere. And if so, this year, at an interval of fifty-one 

 years (a multiple of 17), satisfies the period in question. 



It may be said, that in all this there is little else than conjecture, 

 and that we have no right to make application of events in such 

 a way. 



But if the planting of Hawthorn hedges in England is known 

 to have produced some climatical effects ; if the clearing of 

 forests in Poland, and of the summit of St. Yincent in the West 

 Indies, are also known to have produced dryness to a surprising 

 degree, depriving, in the latter case, the vegetation of the 

 mountain top of the power of condensing water from the trade- 

 wind ; if, too — what I can testify to from my own observation of 

 of what I saw there — paragreles (which are nothing more than 

 posts at certain intervals, just like telegraph posts,) when placed 

 in the vineyards of the Canton de Vaud, in Switzerland, convert 

 the once destructive hail to snow, thus protecting the vines ; so, 

 I think our clearing of the Australian forests (any great tree of 

 which produces daily a great amount of electricity), and our 

 continuous lines of electric posts and wires, and the iron lines of 

 our Eailroads, must have some effect in the transference and 

 spread or collection of that atmospherical Electricity which is in 

 connection with those grander and more universal combinations 

 which enter into the formation of our climate. 



