TABLE II.-continued. LOCH KATRINE DISTRICT. GLAS- GORBALS DISTRICT. Elevation Elevation Elevation Elevation Elevation Elevation Elevation Elevation Elevation Elevation Elevation 270 feet. 1800 feet. 380 feet. 60 feet. 500 feet. 1800 feet. 20 feet. 280 feet. 310 feet. 550 feet. 700 feet. 5.2 3.4 1860. Inches. Inches. Inches. Inches. Inches. Inches. Inches. Inches. Inches. Inches. Inches. Jan.... 8.5 6.2 10.5 9.5 5.09 5.55 5.95 5.65 4.70 4:40 Gauging discontinued. Dec.... 4.7 6.7 5.8 2.9 8.3 1.6 2.80 2.60 2.60 2.30 Report of the Temperature and Rain-fall, &c., of the Year 1860, As the weather of last year was of a variable character, perhaps a review of it may be worth the attention of the Society. With that view I have compared it with a few former years, and I find that the frost set in this winter earlier than it has done for the last six years; and the cold has been more intense, by about seventeen degrees, than the coldest of these last six years. In the following list are the dates of the first frosty night in each winter, and the lowest degree of cold observed, and also the date of the last frosty night of the but it was again frost on 24th, continued four nights; and again on October 11th, &c., till the last long frost, which lasted from December 13, till we may say 20th January, 1861. The greatest cold was on the night of the 25th December, as the following will show: On the 22d December it was 10° above zero of Fahrenheit's scale. THE MEAN HEAT OF EACH MONTH IN THE SHADE, MEAN COLD, AND MEAN OF BOTH. RAIN-FALL MONTHLY DURING THE YEAR 1860, AT CESSNOCK PARK, Although there were many rainy days in 1860, yet it was under the average quantity of rain by two and a-half inches. The year 1859 was thought rather a dry one, yet it was above the average by more than four and a-half inches. MR. HART inquired whether the rain gauges described by Mr. Gale were placed above the surface of the ground? His own gauge was raised four feet above the surface; because he found that when it was close to the ground, the sparks of rain-drops falling in its immediate neighbourhood were also conveyed into the gauge by currents of the wind, so that the gauge received more than its share. The effect produced by the sparking of rain might be seen on the pavement during a heavy shower, when the surface, to a height of several inches, presented a thick atmosphere of moisture, occasioned by the rebounding of the descending drops. MR. GALE replied, that rain falling upon a hard surface undoubtedly produced the effect described by Mr. Hart; but the gauges referred to, and which were placed a few inches above the surface of the ground, were surrounded by grass kept closely cut, so as not to obstruct the passage of the rain into the gauge, while the surrounding soft surface prevented the undue entrance of rain from sparking. DR. MATHIE HAMILTON concurred with Mr. Hart in the opinion, that an uncertain result might be produced by gauges placed too close to the surface of the ground. DR. ALLEN THOMSON stated, as the result of his own observations, that when a rain gauge was constructed in the position of those described by Mr. Gale, at a height of two or three inches above the level of short-cut grass, the sparks caused by the heaviest fall of rain did not interfere in the slightest degree with the faithful indication of the instrument. He could quite understand how on a hard surface the sparking might produce an erroneous result; but by surrounding the gauge with short-cut grass, any such tendency to error was entirely obviated. It was also observed by the late Professor Fleming that small gauges gave the same result as large gauges. In high-placed gauges the currents of air upwards interfere with the entrance of the rain, and give a lower indication than when they are situated near the surface of the ground. The great object is to place the gauge as low as possible, always taking care to guard against any undue entrance of rain from sparking. He should like to know from Mr. Gale how far his observations or information would lead to the belief of the general prevalence of the phenomenon he had mentioned, that a greater quantity of rain falls on the east than on the west side of a range of hills? E Had it been established by observation, that this result applied generally throughout Scotland, and in other parts of the kingdom? MR. GALE said that it had been observed in Lancashire and the north of Yorkshire, where more rain was found to fall on the eastern than on the western slopes of the hills. Observations made in Cumberland also established the same fact. In the latter district, the greatest amount of rain-fall was found to take place at a height of 2,000 feet. The PRESIDENT could confirm the observation of Mr. Gale, that there is a greater fall of rain on the eastern than on the western slopes of hills. He had occasion, about the year 1846, to make a series of observations on the Pentland Hills, with a view to obtaining a new supply of water for Edinburgh, when he found, as the result of numerous observations made by himself and others, that the rain-fall on the eastern was much in excess of the quantity on the western slopes of the range. Another principle that seemed to be established by the observations at that time was to a great extent confirmed by those made by Mr. Gale, namely, that the quantity of rain does not depend so much on the absolute elevation in which the gauge is placed, as upon its nearness to the summits of the neighbouring hills, where the condensation of vapour takes place, by the mixture of warm and moist air, ascending the western slopes from a low level, with the cold air of the higher regions. DR. M. HAMILTON made some remarks on Mr. Hart's paper, with regard to the extraordinary frost of the past winter, contrasting the extreme depression of the temperature in the latter part of December with the prolonged frosts of 1812, 1813, and 1814, of which he gave some personal recollections, observing that the frost in these years never reached so low a point as during the last winter, although in 1813 it lasted for eleven weeks, and in the month of May, 1814, the banks of the river were covered with blocks of ice. MR. DOWNIE and MR. E. HUNT also took part in the conversation, the latter pointing out a curious correspondence between the weather in the two equinoctial weeks of last year, the first day of frost having occurred, as will be seen from Mr. Hart's paper, on the 10th of September. The PRESIDENT exhibited a new rifle-bullet, invented by Mr. Kennedy of Kilmarnock. February 12, 1861.-PROFESSOR W. J. MACQUORN RANKINE, Mr. William Houston, Merchant, and Mr. Charles Penney, Jun. Chemist, were elected members of the Society. On the Stalactitic Sulphate of Barytes found in Derbyshire. DURING a visit to Buxton in September last, I observed in all the occur. Unfortunately, too, this stalactite is not found in the situation in which it was formed, but lying loosely among the stony soil which, along with it, fills up the interstices of the vein. Mr. Thomas Bateman, a gentleman of extensive acquirements in natural science, who resides on his property of Youlgrave, near Bakewell, in the immediate neighbourhood of the locality of this mineral, was kind enough to give me the following information in reply to inquiries I made of him regarding the circumstances in which this mineral occurs : It is found on Middleton Moor, in a field on the Duke of Rutland's estate adjoining to Youlgrave, on the southern slope of a hill of no great |