of Whitehaven in the year 1853. 255 



bush described might be traced above the sun's upper limb, perpen- 

 dicular to the horizon. Soon after the moon rose, a faint lunar 

 halo was visible, and it continued more or less perfect till after mid- 

 night. On the morning of the 28th, at 2h. 21m., an unusually 

 brilliant shooting star appeared and disappeared in the south-east at 

 an altitude of about 15°, and it conveyed a strong impression of being 

 close at hand, as if it were a spark from a neighbouring chimney. 

 At 2h. 30m., there was a singular brownish conical light above 

 the upper limb of the gibbous moon, resembling the flame of a 

 candle. 



The cuckoo was heard at Rothersyke on the 24th, and swallows 

 made their appearance in this neighbourhood a day or two later. I 

 first noticed the Io butterfly on the 29th. 



Between the 24th of March and the end of April, we were favoured 

 with an uninterrupted continuance of the finest astronomical weather 

 I almost ever remember, and during this period I was enabled suc- 

 cessfully to measure, both in position and distance, some of the most 

 delicate and difficult double and binary stars — as € Bootis, £ Bootis, 

 and £ Hercules.* 



From the very favourable state of the atmosphere, I was also en- 

 abled to charge the micrometer with a lens of unusually high power 

 (500) and of admirable workmanship, made by Mr Simms, — with 

 which systems of the 3d and 4th magnitude (under illumination) 

 presented perfect disks, with scarcely a trace of rings. Indeed, 

 nothing could exceed the beauty and sharpness of the stellar defini- 

 tion with this eye-piece, and I prefer it to any lower power for 

 micrometric measures, when the air is at all tolerably steady. 



May. — The driest May on record at this place, except the corre- 

 spondingmonth in 1836 and 1844. The entire deposit of rainbetween 

 the 19th of April and the 6th of June — a period of 47 days, only 

 amounted to 0*624 inch, of which 0*272 fell in May, on 6 days. 

 The month was remarkably fine and clear throughout ; the number 

 of perfectly clear days was 7, and the sun shone out either partially 

 or continuously on every day. The nights were cold, bright, and 

 cloudless, and an enormous amount of radiant heat was thrown off 

 from the earth's surface between sunset and sunrise. The differ- 

 ence between the day and night temperature was 17°; and the 

 mean difference between the standard thermometer in air at 4 feet 

 above the ground, and one on raw wool placed on the grass, was 

 14 0, 2. Vegetation was consequently subjected to very low tempera- 

 tures : — the mean of the night temperature on the grass was 29 0, 8, 



* In about two years, the small purple companion of £ Hercules will have per- 

 formed two entire revolutions around its brilliant primary since its position 

 was first determined by Sir W. Herschel in the summer of 1782. It is now 

 moving in its orbit at the rate of about 5° per annum, and its distance has in- 

 creased of late years. 



s2 



