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The following table has been compiled to show the number of days in each month on which rain or snow fell, also the number of days without either rain or snow.

Months. Days of Rain. with Thunder Days of Snow. Days without

Accompanied

and Lightning

Rain or Snow.

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Rain fell on 109 days; it amounted to 26.507 inches, was accompanied by thunder and lightning in 18 days, and shows a large decrease in the usual annnal rain fall.

Snow fell on 56 days, amounting to 74.53 inches on the surface, which is equivalent to about 7.450 inches of rain.

The first snow of autumn fell on the 18th October, and the winter fairly set in on the 29th November, with unusual severity, and somewhat earlier than the usual period, causing severe losses to shipping from foreign ports as also to the river navigation.

The Thermometer first attained its zero point on the 29th November.

The ice left the front of the city on the 8th of April, and the first steamer arrived in port on the 10th day. The last frost of spring was on the 26th of April.

Winds. The most prevalent wind

-

West, the next in frequency the N. E.

during the year was the

The most windy month

in the year was May, and the least windy month July.

Below is a table showing the direction of the wind for each month and its mean velocity in miles, irrespective of its direction :

N NE E SE S SW WNW Calm. Veloc'y

Months.

January February.. March. April.

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May.

June

July
August
September.
October
November

December

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20

17

23

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4250

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12

13

12 19

13

6303

5

0

1

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14

53

23 34

0

41

23

48

4.82

5.77

2.86

5.04

6.89

1.84

1.84

4.55

4.34

4.07

3.84

4.84

Mean monthly amount of clouds in decimals, a cloudy sky being represented by a whole number (1.00.)

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The aurora borealis was visible at observation hours on 26 nights, and exhibited some grand displays on the 10th and 11th of February, 17th March, 9th of April, 7th of August, 7th of September and the 9th of November.

MONTREAL OBSERVATORY, 30th Jan., 1872.

PROCEEDINGS OF THE

NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY,

Session 1871-72.

MONTHLY MEETINGS.

1st Monthly Meeting, October 30th, 1871,-Principal Dawson presiding.

A donation of a large collection of fossils from Sir G. Duncan Gibb, Bart., M.A., M.D., F.G.S., &c., &c., having been announced by the Recording Secretary, a special vote of thanks to the donor was passed.

Prof. J. B. Edwards made a communication on an insect larva (?) which he stated perforated filters made of silicated carbon.

Mr. J. F. Whiteaves read a paper entitled "Log of a DeepSea Dredging Cruise round the Island of Anticosti." This forms the first part of a report submitted by the author to the Hon. the Minister of Marine and Fisheries for publication, the whole of which it is hoped will appear, with the writer's latest corrections, in an early number of this journal.

A paper by Dr. Anderson, entitled "The Whale of the St. Lawrence," was read by the Rec. Secretary. This will be found at pages 203-208 of the present volume.

The following resolutions having been moved by Dr. Smallwood and seconded by G. L. Marler, were unanimously adopted:

"That this Society desires to convey to the Hon. the Minister of Marine its grateful acknowledgments for the aid afforded to its Scientlfic Curator in the prosecution of his researches into the fauna of the deeper parts of the Gulf of St. Lawrence during the past summer, and to express its confidence that the results will be found to be useful and creditable to Canada, both in a practical and scientific point of view, and such as to encourage a continuation and extension of similar investigations."

"That this resolution be communicated to the Hon, the Minister of Marine, with the assurance that the Society will do all in its power to enable the important scientific results of the expedition to be worked out, and published as extensively as possible."

A copy of the above resolutions was duly forwarded to the Hon. Mr. Mitchell, to which the following reply was returned:

OTTAWA, Nov. 25, 1871. SIR,-I have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 3rd instant, informing me that at a meeting of the Natural History Society of Montreal, held on the 30th September last, a resolution of thanks was unanimously carried to myself, for the aid which I had afforded the Scientific Curator of the Society in the prosecution of his researches into the fauna of the deeper parts of the St. Lawrence Gulf during the past summer, and I am gratified to find in the second resolution that the Society have confidence " that the results will be found to be useful and creditable to Canada, both in a practical and scientific point of view, and such as to encourage a continuation and extension of similar investigations." I am gratified also to learn that it is the intention of tho Society to "do all in its power to enable the important scientific results of the expedition to be worked out and published as extensively as possible."

While this action of the Natural History Society is personally very gratifying to me, it is also satisfactory to me to be able to state that the Government, in granting the facilities which your Society asked for during the past season, performed an act which, I believe, commended itself to the intelligence of the country, and I have no doubt that the action of the researches of the Society in the future, directed as they are by intelligence and scientific skill, will always command the use of similar facilities such as those referred to at the command of the Government. It will afford me much pleasure to notice the result of your labours, if furnished therewith, in the annual report of my Department.

I have the honor to be,
Yours, &c.,

J. F. WHITEAVES, Esq., F.G.S.,

Montreal.

2nd Monthly Meeting, Nov. 29th, 1871.

P. MITCHELL.

The Most Rev. the Bishop of Montreal and Metropolitan, Rev. Charles Chapman, M.A., Drs. Eneas, Leprohon, Wilkins and McEachran, and Messrs. T. Wright, W. S. Walker, Alexander Robertson, Thomas Curry, S. B. Scott, H. Mott, N. Mer. cer, F. W. Hicks, M.A., and J. Dey, B.A., were elected Members of the Society.

Prof. Nicholson's paper "On the Colonies of M. Barrande," was presented; and Mr. Billings gave a popular exposition of Prof. Barrande's views. The article referred to will be found on page 188. Dr. T. Sterry Hunt then made a communication "On the Geological Structure of Mont Blanc." An article on this subject, by Dr. Hunt, entitled "On Arctic Geology," will be found in the American Journal of Science and Arts, for January, 1872.

3rd Monthly Meeting, Jan. 29th, 1872.

The Secretary announced a donation of more than 120 volumes of the Zoological Catalogues of the British Museum, from the Trustees of that Institution, to whom a special vote of thanks was unanimously voted.

Prof. G. F. Armstrong, M.A., F.G.S., and Dr. B. J. Harrington were elected ordinary members, and Sir G. Duncan Gibb, Bart., M.A., M.D., LL.D., &c., a corresponding member of the Society.

Principal Dawson made a communication on the Physical Geography of Prince Edward Island. The paper commenced with noticing the form and geographical position of the Island as a crescent-shaped and much indented expanse of undulating and fertile land, more than 100 miles in length, lying in the almost semicircular bend formed by the southern side of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and separated from the neighbouring coasts of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick by Northumberland Strait. The principal geological formations are the Triassic red sandstones, the almost equally red sandstones of the Upper Carboniferous rocks, which extend across from Nova Scotia and New Bruns wick, and appear in limited areas on the West Coast and in Hillsborough Bay. The soil of the Island is almost throughout a fertile red loam, and the beautifully undulating surface, bright green fields contrasting with the red soil, frequent groves and belts of trees, and neat homesteads, give an appearance of beauty and rural comfort not surpassed by any portion of America. The Island is said to be more thickly peopled and more highly culti vated than any other portion of British America of equal extent. Its climate is much more mild and equable than that of Eastern Canada. In July last the horse-mowing machines, which are almost universally used, were to be seen everywhere laying down a crop of hay not to be surpassed in any country, and the wide fields of clean and tall oats presented a magnificent appearance. The potato and turnip are largely cultivated, and wheat to a less extent. In the end of July, however, the author visited a field on the estate of the Hon. Mr. Pope, where a very heavy crop of winter wheat was being cut. The natural fertility of the soil is largely aided by the application to it of mussel or oyster mud obtained in inexhaustible quantities from the old oyster beds of the bays and creeks, by means of dredging machines mounted on rafts in summer and on the ice in winter.

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