‘TROPICAL RAINS, 
wary, 1880, the rain again on the 
‘Clarence River on cehibeg 29th, with SE, winds, and fell arr 
and there abetie the reared with winds south to east, until Feb- 
oth 8th, when the wind got to N.E., and it began to rain heavily 
at Bou rke. It is evident therefore that although the rain always 
® “comes about the beginning of February, at the time when, as we 
_ temperature ‘eich is. aren to take phat at that ferrari fall : 
sien is obviously due some cause external to the earth, — 
~ because it affects both bensiag her In the north the time is so well 
_ known that we have ice saints for these days of freezing cold. _. ey 
M. Saint Claire Deville, in searching meteorological records for 
evidence of this fact, found it in all, even in the most ancient me 
‘Ineteorological documents—for instance, in the observations of the 
pupils ofGalileo. These observations extend from 1655 to 1670, and iS 
show that the minimum was reached on February 12,andI have 
before pointed out that the same remarkable phenomenon is ob- 
Servable in Australian registers. And in searching for a cause, , 
Several Continental astronomers have not hesitated ‘to say that 
, there i is little doube that it is the intervention between the sun and 
oe as it A pheorapet nip Mes. Sound the sun, sore it — crossthe < — 
; a Tuary so partially eclipse the sun, cutting off from : 
s his ght | ve heat ; and M. Erman considered ‘himself justified by by 
) investigations into a i records in saying “ee 
it did so, I have been for some years convin “ince det thie the S08 
satisfactory explanation of the fall of temperature in Fé see 
that thiire 4 is sufficient ence to prove that we must take 
