12 
REPORT OE THE 
20th. The year’s total was 28*29 inches on 210 days. With 
this we may compare 22*61 inches at Strathfield Turgis, 25*61 
at Hitchin, 67*69 on Dartmoor, and 147*68 on Seathwaite, 
Cumberland. During the thunderstorm on the former date a 
return flash, apparently, passed upwards through the laboratory 
gasfittings at the Friends’ School, Bootham. 
We have to thank Mr. R. J. Farmer, Coney Street, Mr. H. 
Richardson, Cherry Hill and Ilkley, Mr. Jonathan Burtt, 
Park Street, for their respective returns, and Mr. R. Thompson 
for obtaining these and the returns from Hull. 
The wind returns do not require any special comment. Very 
severe gales were experienced on January 25th, September 1st, 
and December 12th. Thick incrustations of salt and dirt,, con* 
sisting partly of diatoms, coated the windows after the last. 
Auroras were seen on March 26th, 27th, and on several 
other occasions. 
No floods of extraordinary height will be found in the 
accompanying table, except that of January 30th, which reached 
12ft. lOin. above summer level. 
The most remarkable phenomenon of the year has been the 
lurid effects at sunrise and sunset, first noticed in England on 
November 8th, and lasting with diminished splendour to the 
present time. Their cause has been traced, with some 
probability, to the unprecedented volcanic eruptions of 
ICrakatoa, an island between Java and Sumatra, on August 
27th and 28th. The general features were as follows :—A very 
early flush about IJ hours before sunrise soon grew lurid like a 
distant fire, would nearly die and be followed by an orange 
glow, changing to exquisite rose and mauve tints, green and 
yellow reaching to the zenith. As these, half an hour before 
sunrise, yielded to the ordinary sky tints, a counter glow, like a 
pink halo, came in the region opposite the unrisen sun, dis¬ 
appearing in 10 minutes. However clear the previous night, 
delicate hazy clouds, like ghosts of Stratus clouds formed along 
the horizon from south to east. These, at and after sunrise, 
became silvery white, and usually disappeared in about an hour. 
The sky from 10° to 30° from the sun was often strongly tinged 
with l)ink and yellow, or tawny coloured closer round. Identical 
