180 Scientific Intelligence — Meteorology. 



resided there several years, informs us that the annual fall never 

 exceeded 90 inches. Dr Fayrer has ascertained that the total fall 

 for the present year will scarcely exceed 80 inches, an amount which 

 does not exceed the mean fall of rain at Arddarroch in Dumbarton- 

 shire. In May, the fall of rain registered at Rangoon, in pluvio- 

 meter, 1 1*79 inches; June, 1643 inches; July, 21*35; August, 

 17 "07 inches. 



Temperature. — The minimum temperature observed at sunrise in 

 May, was 73°; June, 74°*5 ; July, 74°; August, 75°. The maxi- 

 mum at noon in May, was 96° ; June, 90 ; July, 88° ; August, 87° ; 

 and at three p.m., in May, 95° ; June, 90 o, 5 ; July, 89° ; August 

 88°* 5. At all periods the temperature and sense of heat are miti- 

 gated after two o'clock, either by a sea-breeze, which springs up 

 about that time in the dry season, or by thunder and rain, as the 

 evenings succeed a forenoon of unusual heat. The moisture of the 

 atmosphere is of course great during these months ; and often the 

 difference of temperature between the dry and wet bulb thermome- 

 ters is very trifling. — (Monthly Journal of Medical Science, Decem- 

 ber 1852, p. 544.) 



P- 



3. On the Recent Earthquake felt at Adderley ; in a Letter to 

 Robert Chambers, Esq., by Richard Corbett, Esq. — At half-past four 

 o'clock this morning, (Nov. 7, 1852^ railway time, we were visited by 

 a really smart shock of an earthquake. Our household consists of 

 twenty-two persons, eighteen of whom were fully alive to it, and all 

 more or less alarmed. Having myself felt a shock in this house, July 

 1832, I was instantly aw r are of what was taking place. A rum- 

 bling, heavy noise, which seems to have awakened many who were 

 asleep, shortly preceded the shock — this was my case; the sensation 

 was that of being rocked in the bed. 



From all that I can collect, it is my belief that the shock passed 

 from west to east, and at present we have reason to suppose it was 

 con fined to a very narrow line. Several of our villagers were much 

 shaken and alarmed. The noise must have been considerable, as a 

 very deaf person heard it, and resembled that made by a waggon 

 going over pavement. 



The atmosphere was perfectly dead as described — not the slightest 

 movement in the air, and very warm. On Friday last, we had a 

 tremendous thunder-storm, and large pieces of ice. I could rather 

 imagine that there is some peculiarity in our substrata here, for 

 since 1775 or 1776 we have had three very complete shocks of earth- 

 quake in this locality. We stand upon the edge of the lias, and 

 there has been very near to us a most extensive subsidence, forming 

 a valley of unknown depth between the face of the lias and that of 

 the new red sandstone, which cross out at the distance of a mile and 

 a-half from each other. The intermediate valley is filled with north- 

 ern drift, in which I have bored ninety feet, still in the drift. 



