933 



phenomenon which terrified or arrested the attention of the inhabit- 

 ants of the whole of this coast some two months ago. This was 

 the fall of a shower of aerolites, with a brilliant stream of light 

 accompanying them, and which extended from Tunis to Tripoli, 

 some of the stones falling in the latter city. 



"The alarm was very great in Tunis, and severalJews and Moors 

 instinctively fled to the British Consulate, as the common refuge 

 from every kind of evil and danger. 



" The fall of these aerolites was followed by the severest or coldest 

 winter which the inhabitants of Tunis and Tripoli have experienced 

 for many years." 



The reading of a paper, entitled " Discussion of Meteorological 

 Observations taken in India at various heights." By Lieut.-Colonel 

 Sykes, F.R.S. &c., was commenced, but was not concluded. 



The Society then adjourned over the Easter recess, to meet again 

 on the 11th of April. 



ApriUl, 1850. 

 PROFESSOR OWEN, Esq,, Vice-President, in the Chair. 



Lieut.-Colonel Sykes's paper, entitled " Discussion of Meteorolo- 

 gical Observations in India," was resumed and concluded. 



The author adverts to a former paper " On the INIeteorology of 

 theDeccan," published in the Philosophical Transactions for 1835, 

 and after referring to the conclusions at which he arrived in that 

 communication, states that, in the discussion of the meteorological 

 observations which form the subject of the present paper, and which 

 were made over a very extended area, at different heights, some 

 being hourly and running through several years at the same station, 

 it is very satisfactory to find that they fully establish the accuracy 

 of the former deductions. He remarks that, as some of the obser- 

 vations now discussed were hourly records continued through con- 

 siderable periods of time, an opportunity has been afi'orded of in- 

 vestigating abnormal conditions, which the former limited number 

 of diurnal observations did not permit ; and gives the following 

 review of what appears to be normal and abnormal conditions. 



The annual and daily range of the barometer diminishes from the 

 sea-level up to the greatest height observed, 8640 feet at Dodabetta, 

 from a mean annual and mean daily range at Madras of 0*735 and 

 0*122 respectively to 0*410 and 0"060 at Dodabetta; — the annual 

 range would appear to increase, about and beyond the northern 

 tropic, as the annual range at Calcutta (not by hourly observations) 

 is 0*911 ; but the diurnal range is somewhat less (0*115) than at 

 Madras. At no one of the places of observation, even taking the 

 maximum pressure of one year with the minimum pressure of anotiier 

 year, does there appear to have been a range of pressure equivalent 



