
Gants s 
XIII.—Account of a Thermometrical Register kept at Dunfermline by the Rev. 
Henry Fergus, from 1799 till 1837, with the principal Results. By James D. 
Forsss, D.C.L., F.R.S., Sec. R.S. Ed., Professor of Natural Philosophy in the 
University of Edinburgh. 
(Read 6th March 1860.) 
1. When I found that the interesting meteorological register of Mr Apts, 
_ which is well fitted to throw light upon the climate of Edinburgh, and of Scot- 
land generally, was deficient of the important period of nearly sixteen years, 
from 1805 to 1820, I set on foot inquiries as to the existence of any other register 
of the thermometer which might approximately supply the defect. After some 
unsuccessful attempts, my attention was directed by Professor Dove’s useful 
temperature tables to a register of the thermometer kept by the Rev. Mr FErcus 
of Dunfermline, of which the monthly means, from 1805 to 1824, are given in the 
* Edinburgh Philosophical Journal,” vol. xiii. Though the distance of Dunferm- 
line from Edinburgh is thirteen miles in a right line, and though it occupies the 
opposite slope of the valley of the Forth, not far from the Ochil Hills, yet a slight 
comparison of the observations showed a very remarkable coincidence in its 
climate with that of Edinburgh, not only as regards the mean annual tempera- 
ture, but also in the distribution of temperature throughout the year. I therefore 
made an effort to obtain the original register from which the results published in 
the “ Edinburgh Philosophical Journal” were derived ; and through the kindness, 
in the first instance, of Mr Davin Larne of the Signet Library, | was brought into 
communication with the Rev. Joun Fereus of Bower, near Wick, in Caithness, 
son of the Dunfermline observer, who most kindly placed in my hands his 
father’s original register of the barometer, thermometer, and weather at Dun- 
fermline, extending from 1799 to the time of his death in 1837, all made with 
one instrument, and at the same hour daily (9 a.m.), with very remarkable 
regularity. 
2. During this long period of ‘time but one thermometer was used, and it is 
still entire, and now in my possession. 
3. From November 1802 until August 1837 the thermometer appears to have 
been constantly kept in the same exposure, which was rather a peculiar one, and 
which has been minutely described to me by the Rev. Joun Fereus. It was placed 
on the outside of an ordinary glazed window, in a staircase leading to an attic, 
with a north exposure. This window was above 34 feet wide, but, in order to 
avoid the window-tax, it was contracted externally by brickwork, so as to leave 
VOL. XXII. PART II. 4Z 
