BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 



247 



at the time of the shocks, and the nature of the weather 

 generally, during their occurrence, may be ascertained. 

 The Committee, however, think it desirable to procure 

 instruments much more sensitive than any which they yet 

 possess ; and they particularly call attention to the impor- 

 tance of carrying on meteorological observations at Comrie, 

 as there seems to exist strong grounds for the opinion en- 

 tertained by many, of an intimate connexion between earth- 

 quake shocks and the state of the weather, or rather the va- 

 rious agents which affect the weather. The Committee have 

 not yet attempted the registration of earthquake shocks in 

 any part of the country except Perthshire ; but as the pri- 

 mitive districts of Cornwall and Wales have often expe- 

 rienced shocks, they propose also to send instruments and 

 esta]}lish observations in those parts of the country. 



Dr. Buckland recommended the establishment of observations along 

 various lines known to be affected by earthquake shocks, such as the 

 Chichester Hne of fault, Swansea, and Falmouth. The electric state 

 of the earth would probably be found to influence the atmosphere much 

 more powerfully than the air would affect the earth ; the earthquake 

 shocks were most frequent in the autumn and winter, and it was worth 

 inquiry how far the rains of that period would alfect strata under diflfe- 

 rent electric conditions, such as those brought in contact by the faults 

 and trap dykes of Comrie, and thus, perhaps, afford some clue to the 

 origin of the shocks. 



Mr. Sedgwick believed that the small amount of evidence as to 

 movement, which had been or could be obtained in Britain, was not 

 likely to throw much light on the origin of earthquakes, or on their 

 connexion with atmospheric conditions. When regular observations 

 could be established abroad, in regions frequently and powerfully in- 

 fluenced by such movements, we might hope to arrive at the conditions 

 of their occurrence. Atmospheric conditions ought certainly to be no- 

 ticed, and the coincidence of the shocks in Scotland with particular 

 seasons of the year, well deserve remark. Perhaps the phenomenon 

 was not more remarkable than the fact, that meteors showed them- 



