d. A fine spring day. Bats began their usual excursions in the twilight. Considering that these animals pursue small insects by the sense of hearing alone, their agility is surprising; and the silent motion of their leathern wings is admirably adapted to the purpose.

Additional Notes, &c.-Third Mo. 10. Frequent slight showers of granular snow, (or the nuclei of hailstones.) 15. A little opake hail. 18. a. m. Cumulus clouds with a veil of Cirrus above: windy, with a little rain at sunset. 21. A light breeze varying from W by N to E. 22. A steady breeze E. 25. Idem NE. 26 to 31. Cumulostratus daily, with a clear sky above, and now and then, granular snow.

Character of the period dry, frosty, and cloudy, with a high degree of transparency in the lower air. Rain, &c. by day 003, by night 0:42.

4th Mo. New M. April 8 SW 30-23 30-15 63° 30°

5

a.

9 S 30.23 29.98

NOTES.-a. A serene atmosphere, with a strong positive electricity the whole day. The pith-balls of the conductor diverged half an

inch.

b. Windy, with a little rain, which was negative.

c. Barometer stationary about twenty hours, the air positive.

d. About 9 p.m. a meteor passed from the zenith to the south; there fell much dew in the night, and rain followed in some quantity. e. A single swallow on the wing.

f. Several more of these harbingers of warm weather, which, however, met with a most inhospitable reception in a storm of snow and slect, continuing most part of the day.

g. p. m. Many distinct Nimbi traversing the country in different quarters, and discharging showers of hai, which was highly charged with electricity. One of these, being carefully examined throughout, presented the following phenomena. While the cloud was on the horizon in the NE and the shower behind it, the pith-balls of the insulated conductor remained in contact. When the extremity of the upper surface of the inverted cone of cloud had arrived in the zenith, they opened negative, and diverged slowly to full two inches, at which time pretty strong sparks were drawn from the conductor. During the remainder of the approach of the shower, they gradually closed again. At the moment when the latter began to touch the observatory they opened positive, diverged more speedily, and the apparatus gave strong sparks for a considerable time, positive. As the cloud drew off to the SW, this charge gradually ceased, and the balls opened again neg. diverging gradually as before, then converging, and lastly were left a little charged pos. The reader who is conversant in electrical phenomena will see in all this the natural effects of the high positive charge in the column of falling hail, which might be six or seven miles in diameter, and which appeared to be surrounded with a negative area, extending into the dry atmosphere about three miles in every direction. Could the descent of the electric fluid have been rendered as obvious to our senses over the whole tract, as was that of the hail, its conductor, we should have pronounced it a shower of fire rather than of ice; for the latter, when melted into the rain gauge, made no more than one hundreth of an inch along with several previous showers.

h. First notes of the cuckow.

i. About 9 p. m. a sudden shower, which gave to the conductor a strong negative charge continuing some time after it. The air before. was positive.

k. A mist from the Thames.

1. After repeated indications of strong electricity in the clouds for some days past, thunder was heard at intervals, in a Nimbus situated in the W and NW. Signs of negative electricity followed, for a few minutes only, when the edge of this cloud approached us. Soon after a breeze coming on from SW, this, with other clouds of the same kind, which had formed in the E, S, and SW, drew off to the northward, where they remained visible on the horizon till late at night, the lightning playing among them almost incessantly. Much rain followed on the ensuing days, which was several times examined, and found positively charged.

Additional Notes, &c.-Fourth Mo. 9. Very serene and warm, Cirri pointing N, and Cirrostratus evening; the wind brisk. 10. Cirrostratus in abunda

ance the whole day. 12. At sunset the Cumuli evaporated, Cirrus and Cirrostratus, with much dew succeeded.

Fifth Mo. 5. Rain the whole evening at first non-electric, then strongly positive at intervals.

THUNDER STORMS.

At Poulton-in-the-Fylde, Lancashire, and the neighbourhood, on Thursday the 30th of April, and the two following days, there was the most tremendous thunder and lightning ever remembered by the oldest persons; on Friday, particularly so. As a girl, aged thirteen, was returning from school, in Poulton, about seven in the evening, she was struck dead within half a mile of the town: her bonnet, cloak, stockings, and shoes, were burnt or torn in pieces, several parts of which were carried into the hedge; she had a gallon of rum in a stone bottle, wrapt up in her apron, which there is no doubt exploded, as several pieces were found at a considerable distance from the spot. Two sheep were killed near Poulton, and the ground near where they lay was perforated in several places, and burnt-Great Marton Mill had three of its sails shivered in pieces, and the top set on fire; a large iron chain, which draws up the corn, was melted to a rod of iron, and as the bottom did not reach to the floor, considerable damage was done below it, such as tearing up the boards, &c.—On the same day, there was a dreadful thunder storm at Preston, attended with vivid and continued lightning, a fall of rain so heavy as to be compared to the setting in of the rainy season in Africa, and hail so large, that some of the stones measured three inches in circumference; it broke windows and sky-lights innumerable. The storm was also severely felt at Lancaster, York, and many other places.-At Bakewell, in Derbyshire, hailstones fell, intensely frozen, from two to four inches round, and many windows were broken.

The inhabitants of Silkstone, near Penistone, Yorkshire, were visited by one of the most alarming phenomena ever remembered. The clouds had portended rain, but none had then fallen there, when suddenly a torrent of water deluged the town, which is situate in a valley, and several persons were unfortunately drowned. The greatest transition from cold to heat ever remembered had been observed in the last week in April, and the above inundation was occasioned by a mass of clouds, during the thunder storm, bursting in a field in the township of Bradfield, the waters taking their course down the Rivelin and Loxley, and thence into the Dun, which became suddenly swollen. Near Doncaster it is said to have risen nine feet in the space of an hour and a half. A great number of windows were broken, at Heckleton, during a severe hail storm the same evening. Pieces of ice of an oblong form exceeding five inches were picked up.-(ATHENEUM.)

Process employed in the Maçonnais of France to avert Hail and dissipate Storms, Mag. Encyclopedique, T. 2. p. 5.

This process, which is now universal in the part of France named in the title, was originally introduced by the Marquis of Cheviers, a naval officer; retired on his estate at Vaurenard, about 35 years ago, who having recollected to have seen the explosion of guns resorted to at sea in order to disperse stormy

clouds, resolved to attempt a similar method to dissipate the hail storms, whose ravages he had often witnessed. For this purpose he made use of boxes of gunpowder, which he caused to be fired from the heights on the approach of a storm; this had the happiest effect, and he continued till his death to preserve his lands from the ravages of hail storms, while the neighbouring villages frequently experienced their baneful effects. He consumed annually between 200 aud 300lb. of mining powder. The inhabitants of the communes where the estate of the Marquis was situated, convinced of the excellence of the practice, from the experience of a great number of years, continued to employ it. Their example was followed by the surrounding communes; and the practice gaining ground, is at this moment in use in the communes of Vaurepard, Iger, and many others. The size of the powder boxes, their charge, and the number of times they fire them off, vary according to circumstances, and the position of the places. In the commune of Fleury they use a mortar which carries a pound of powder at a charge; and it is generally upon the heights, and before the clouds have had time to accumulate, that they make the explosions, which they continue until the stormy clouds are entirely dissipated. The annual consumption of gunpowder for this purpose, from the magazine at Maçon, is from 1300 to 1600lb.-(ĄTHENÆUM.)

RESULTS.

Winds variable. Mean elevation of barometer 29-73 in. Its movements offer nothing remarkable, the rain having been preceded as usual by continued depressions of the column.

The most prominent feature in this period is the almost constant strong electrisation of the atmosphere, which terminated, though not in this part of the country, in violent thunder storms. Rain by day. 0-30. By night 0.54.