PERIODICITY OF GOOD AND BAD SEASONS. 107 
Mr. Deane said :— Will Mr. Russell kindly inform me where the 
statement is to be found as to the number of large dead trees 
which were seen when colonists first landed here? J am much 
interested in the subject and would like to read the original 
account of it, 
It is somewhat difficult to understand how a meteorological 
cycle can exist unless accompanied by or resulting from some 
cosmic cycle. Mr. Russell’s cycle of nineteen years corresponds 
with the Metonic cycle, and a good may persons would be glad if 
Mr. Russell would explain what that term means. They believe 
that in a vague sort of way, it implies a recurrence of similar 
lunar phenomena, but are the phenomena which recur of sufficient 
importance to account for periodic variations of weather conditions? 
I gather from Mr. Russell’s remarks that similar eclipses recur 
at the same time of year after a period of nineteen years, and that 
when they take place near the equinoxes, droughts seem to result. 
If the period is an exact one, the centuries can be divided up 
indefinitely, if not, there must be a gradual transition in the 
character of the lunar phenomena which ought to be accompanied 
by an alteration in the meteorological maxima and minima. 
Does not the occurrence of eclipses depend upon the position of 
the moon’s nodes? My difficulty is that the period of revolution 
of the moon’s nodes does not correspond with the Metonic cycle. 
Which period is it that causes the meteorological phenomena ? 
Tf the moon has an influence on the weather it can only be by 
combining its pull on the atmosphere with that of the sun. When 
Movements.”—International Science Series, p. 256, London, 1886). It 
would appear therefore that during the winter months in either hemi- 
sphere, earthquakes attain a greater intensity than during the summer 
months. If this is due to the cold of winter, and if commercial droughts — 
are also droughts in the scientific sense, that is periods when the earth 
Feceives less superficial heat, and therefore makes less rain than at other 
Periods, it should be possible to correlate maxima of earthquake intensity 
with drought maxima. The question, however, is much complicated by 
~ slowness with which certain rocks conduct solar heat downwards, 
vm Prevents the wave of summer heat at a particular locality pene- 
