817 



were stationed by the author on the summit of Sea- Fell Pike. He 

 states that from the maximum thermometer no correct readings 

 could be obtained ; but that the minimum gave the following : — 

 July, 22°: August, 24-°; September, 18°; October, —6°; November, 

 — 6°; December, — 9°. It appears that on the night between the 2nd 

 and 3rd of January the minimum thermometer indicated the extra- 

 ordinary low temperature —34?° Fahr. : at the same date a naked 

 thermometer on grass at Whitehaven fell to +4°, and one on raw 

 wool to — 2°*8. 



The author states that the results obtained from the mountain 

 gauges during the last year, are in strict accordance with those of 

 the two preceding years, and thus confirm the correctness of the 

 conclusion drawn from them in his former paper, " that the quantity 

 of rain increases from the valley upwards to an altitude of about 

 2000 feet, above which it begins to diminish." He does not, how- 

 ever, by any means infer that the law which appears to regulate 

 the distribution of rain in the mountain district of Cumberland will 

 equally apply to every similar locality. 



April 26, 1849. 



The EARL OF ROSSE, President, in the Chair. 



A paper was read, entitled "A Report upon further Observations 

 of the Tides of the English Channel made by order of the Lords 

 Commissioners of the Admiralty in 1848, with remarks upon the 

 Laws by which the Tidal Streams of the English Channel and Ger- 

 man Ocean appear to be governed." By Captain F. W. Beechey, 

 R.N., F.R.S. Communicated by the Lords Commissioners of the 

 Admiralty. 



The author commences this report by observing, that the result 

 of the observations upon the tides in the English Channel, made in 

 the course of the summer of 1 848, had confirmed in a satisfactory 

 manner the view he had taken of the tidal phenomena of the chan- 

 nel, in the report communicated to the Royal Society last year, and 

 printed in the Philosophical Transactions (Part L 1848), namely, 

 that there is a meeting and a separation of the streams between 

 Alderney and the Start : that the whole space between the Start 

 and Scilly is under the joint influence of the channel and offing 

 streams : that from the vicinity of the Start to the vicinity of Hast- 

 ings the stream runs true up and down the channel; and moreover 

 that this stream throughout turns nearly simultaneously with the 

 time of high and low water on the shore at the virtual head of the 

 tide, which he places in the vicinity of Dover; and lastly, that the 

 streams which meet off the Start are turned down into the Gulf of 

 St. Malo, and vice versa. 



