A DUST-FALL IN THE SOUTH-WEST OF ENGLAND 85 
direction on February 19, drove the dust-cloud to W. and 
N.W. and near the Azores ; the wind being S.W., the cloud 
was quickly driven to Europe. It is deserving of notice 
that the R.M.S. Briton, keeping near the African coast, 
passed through huge quantities of red dust with a wind at 
N.E., while the s.s. Kirkhy, running westward from 
Madeira, encountered the dust-fall with a S.E. wind.^ The 
British and Africa Company’s steamer Bornu fell in with the 
dust-storm on February 19, when she was thirty-six hours 
from Teneriffe, and the fall was so dense that her speed had 
to be reduced to dead slow, as it was impossible to see from 
one end of the liner to the other. On arriving at Teneriffe, 
the Bornu found that the steamer which had passed her 
on the previous day had gone ashore during the sand- 
storm.^ 
This dust-fall was noticed in many parts of the continent. 
In Kremsmiinster, in Austria, the fall was on February 
22 and 23, with the wind in the west, and a haze which was 
described as “ smoke-like.” At Loosderf, Pyhrn, Graz, 
and other places in Austria, it is recorded that the trees 
were covered with a yellow-dust on February 23.^ In 
Ireland and in many localities in England the phenomenon 
was noticed. From a large number of actual observers 
of the 1902 dust-fall we will only take the experience of a 
few. Mr. C. Grover, of the Rousdon Observatory, Devon, 
says that many objects and instruments on the windward 
side of these buildings were “ conspicuously marked with 
a deposit of a reddish or a rusty-coloured mud so thick as 
to attract attention at once.” ^ The West Usk Lighthouse- 
keeper (Monmouthshire) reported to Trinity House that on 
“ February 23, some time between noon and sunset, a fall 
of dust occurred with S.W. wind and overcast, misty 
1 Nature, vol. Ixvii. p. 65. 
2 The Daily Telegraph, February 28, 1903. 
2 Meteorlogische Zeitschrijt, Heft. II. Feb. 1903. 
^ Nature, vol. Ixvii. (Letter from Mr. W. Marriott.) 
