Cxlviii PROCEEDINGS—PERTHSHIRE SOCIETY OF NATURAL SCIENCE. 
exercise of our energy and enthusiasm as ever. Indeed, the chief 
difference is that henceforth we are to have the pleasure of paying 
a rent for our Rooms ! 
THE DUNFERMLINE NATURALISTS’ SOCIETY. 
It is with much satisfaction that we have to congratulate a neigh¬ 
bouring town and county on having, within the last few months, 
added another name to the roll of Scottish Natural History Societies, 
namely, the Dunfermline and West of Fife Naturalists’ Society. 
The originators of that Society did us the honour to invite delegates 
from our Society to their Inaugural Meeting, and to their opening 
Conversazione; and they have paid us the further compliment of 
founding their constitution largely upon ours. Not only so, but they 
have expressed a laudable ambition to establish a Regional Museum, 
which shall rival or excel the Perthshire Natural History Museum ! 
In this exalted aim, I am sure that we wish them the heartiest 
success. They have already enrolled a membership of nearly 300, 
and one of the most promising features of their efforts is that this 
number embraces a large number of the teachers of the district, and 
even some of the pupils in the advanced departments of the schools. 
This is an example which, I trust, some of our Perthshire Essay Prize- 
Winners will note and follow. 
SEASONAL NOTES. 
The meteorological conditions during the past season have been 
almost phenomenal as regards rainfall and wind storms. During 
the fourteen weeks, from 1st December, 1902, to 7th March, 1903, 
constituting the winter quarter of the year, 15.99 inches of rain 
fell at Pitcullen, representing just about one-half of the normal 
rainfall for twelve months. This long-continued excess of rainfall, 
accompanied by persistent westerly winds, caused the Perthshire 
rivers to come down in spates, exceeding those experienced for a 
great many years. The Tay, in particular, from Logierait to 
Dalguise, broke through its barrier at many points, washing away 
vast quantities of material in some places, and piling up new deposits 
of sand and gravel in others, thus giving a vivid geological lesson on 
what a river can do in a short space of time when left to its own 
devices, untramelled by those of man. The lower haughlands were 
all completely covered, and in many cases the higher haughlands 
also. At Perth, the Inches and the lower parts of the town were 
flooded on Friday and Saturday, 30th and 31st January, 1903, and 
again, but to a less extent, on Monday, 9th February. Mr. Davidson, 
the Water Manager, informs me that on these dates the water at the 
Railway Bridge stood at the following heights :— 
January 30,—14 ft. 3 in. 
„ 31,—14 ft. 6 in. 
February 9,—12 ft. 1 in. 
The mean summer level of the water at that point is 2 feet, so that 
