190 PROFESSOR FORBES ON THE TEMPERATURE OF THE EARTH. 
a peculiar character of the soil or rock whose temperature was observed, it oc- 
curred to me, several years ago, to make several series of observations, under cir- 
cumstances as exactly similar as possible, with the exception of the nature of the 
soil or rock. The neighbourhood of Edinburgh, from its variety of geological cha- 
racter, offered peculiar facilities for this purpose; and the British Association, at 
my request, undertook the expense of providing and inserting thermometers in 
three different positions, at depths corresponding to those already employed at 
Brussels, namely, 3, 6, 12, and 24 French feet below the surface. The results have 
already been partly published in the Proceedings of the British Association, and 
of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Deeming it advisable that the curves contain- 
ing the details of the observations should be published at large, I requested per- 
mission from the Committee of Recommendations of the British Association, in 
1845, to communicate them, for this purpose, to one of the Royal Societies; and 
the Council of the Royal Society of Edinburgh having agreed to be at the neces- 
sary expense of the plates, I am enabled to present the results in their present 
complete form, and founded upon five years’ observations. 
II. Lesuie’s Observations at Abbotshall, in Fife. 
I shall here reproduce the particulars of the observations of the temperature 
of the ground at Abbotshall, in Fifeshire, on the property of Raith, close to the 
town of Kirkcaldy. The distance from Edinburgh is sufficiently small (11 miles 
in aright line) to render these observations comparable with ours; but I quote 
them more particularly, because those who have hitherto made use of them, being 
unaware of the original account published by Sir Jonn Lesi1z,* have made almost 
every possible mistake as to the locality, circumstances, and depths of these ob- 
servations. It will be seen that they were made by Mr Frreuson of Raith’s 
gardener. The following extract contains all the important details. 
“Tn order to throw distinct light on a subject so curious and important, Ro- 
BERT FerGuson, Esq. of Raith, a gentleman whose elegant mind is imbued with 
the love of science, caused, lately, a series of large mercurial thermometers, with 
stems of unusual length, to be planted in his spacious garden at Abbotshall, about 
50 feet above the level of the sea, and nearly a mile from the shore of Kirkcaldy, 
in latitude 56° 10’... The main part of each stem having a very narrow bore, had 
a piece of wider tube joined above it; and, to support the internal pressure of the 
column of mercury, the bulbs were formed of thick cylinders. The instruments, 
inclosed for protection in wooden cases, were then sunk beside each other to the 
depths of one, two, four, and eight feet below the surface, in a soft gravelly soil, 
which turns, at four feet, into quicksand, or a bed of sand and water. These 
thermometers were carefully observed from time to time by Mr Cuar.es Norval, 
* Supplement to the 6th edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, article CuimaTe, incorporated in 
the 7th edition. 

