108 ‘wo. RUSSELL. 
eclipses occur, the sun, moon and earth are in the best positions 
to produce the maximum effect, and when these occur near the 
equinoxes we might expect to see some special result, if at other 
times the sun, moon and earth were a long way off the straight 
line, but they never are at new and full moon more than 5° off 
the straight line, and of course generally much less; would such 
a small difference in angular distance make such a large difference 
in meteorological effect ? 
If the result of the combined pull of sun and moon at these 
particular periods is strong winds, producing droughts in this and 
some other parts of the world, the increased force of the moist 
south-west Atlantic air-currents would probably cause a greater 
deposition of moisture in Western Europe, but it really seems, 
judging from recent experience, as if droughty weather in Aus- 
tralia is contemporaneous with droughty weather in Europe. 
I was much struck with Mr. Russell’s array of facts, but the 
method of deciding whether a particular year belonged to a drought 
or a good period was not quite clear to the audience, many of 
whom probably thought that a year with a rainfall up to, or nearly 
up to, the average, could not be a droughty year, disregarding, 
however, the irregularity with which the rain fell. A definition 
of the word drought as applied to this country is very desirable, 
so that observers might be able to classify the weather with some 
certainty. 
The PrestpEent asked what convention Mr. Russell adopted to 
indicate with an approximation to uniformity, the beginning and 
end of a drought, for the purpose of graphic illustration. 
Mr. Russett in reply said:—Professor Gurney asks, (1) “What 
is Mr. Russell’s definition of ‘a good year or a bad year’?” The 
terms good and bad were defined in the paper as those having 
‘sufficient or insufficient rainfall.” In the text, page 72, I had 
shewn by reference to 1895, what a bad year was, and stated 
“‘ Drought is not wholly made by a shortage of rainfall, its most 
important factors are great heat and drying winds.” I should 
like to give all the data on which the diagram was based, but it 
