It was suggested that captains required some instructions to know what to bring, as they were liable to be laughed at, and receive no thanks, if they brought well known and common specimens.

Mr. MOORE said that he had prepared a manual of such instructions, which was ready for the press; meanwhile, he would be glad to give every information in his power to sailingmasters, and would promise them that whatever they brought they should not be laughed at for their trouble.

Mr. FABERT exhibited some very rare and perfect specimens of red coral (Distichopora coccinea) from the lately discovered Gambier island. The coral itself was first described by Dr. Gray, about two years since. The polyps forming this coral, as was remarked by the President, are of a lower organization than those forming white coral; and differ from them in structure, and in invariably possessing eight tentacula. Mr. Fabert also exhibited several interesting shells of the genus Cypræa; a remarkable land shell (Helix Busbeii), found on the tops of trees in New Zealand; very interesting specimens of Janthina, with their floats of eggs; and a singularly fine specimen of the parasitic Fungus, Sphæria entomorhiza, growing from the head of a caterpillar, and in excellent fructification.

The following paper was then read:

ON SOME RESULTS OF THE ROYAL CHARTER

STORM.

By

THOMAS DOBSON, B.A.,

(Head Master of the School-frigate "Conway.")

IN examining the results of the bad weather in the months of October and November, 1859, I shall notice very briefly the effects on shipping of the excessive motion of the air; and direct my attention chiefly to some of the less known consequences of the extreme changes in the air's pressure and temperature during the great atmospheric paroxysm of which. the "Royal Charter" storm was only a portion.

I have constructed the curves of the pressure, and of the maximum and minimum temperature, of the air, from continuous observations made every six hours, during the months of October and part of November, at Kew, at Wakefield Prison, at Stonyhurst College, Lancashire, and at the Bishop's Rock Lighthouse, Scilly Islands. The character of these curves is so nearly identical that I have selected the Wakefield curves as exhibiting a fair type of the state of the atmosphere as to pressure and temperature over the whole of England at that time.

The dark line in the diagram * represents the vertical fluctuations of the barometric column of their actual dimensions: the upper boundary of the shaded zone denotes the maximum temperature, and the lower boundary the minimum temperature, as determined by self-registering thermometers. An inch of vertical space is here equivalent to 20° Fahr., and one-tenth of an inch of horizontal space to twenty-four hours. The Admiralty Register of Shipwrecks on the coasts of the

* See Plate I.

United Kingdom in 1859 gives a comprehensive view of the effects of the storms of wind of that year on shipping; and the Reports of the Government Inspectors of Mines supply the dates of the fatal explosions of inflammable gas in these mines for the same period. To these dates I have added those of eight fatal cases of suffocation in coal-mines by fire-damp and choke-damp, as such cases are as significant as explosions of the unusual presence of gas in the mine at the time of their Occurrence. The marked coincidence in time of the greatest atmospheric disturbance during the year, and the occurrence of the greatest number of fatal accidents from gas in coal-mines, is striking and instructive.

In the year 1859, there were 139 vessels totally lost on our coasts, and of these wrecks, 77 took place between the 21st of October and the 9th of November. If this period of nearly three weeks be omitted, the total losses during the remaining forty-nine weeks of the year amount to 62, giving a weekly average of less than 2 total losses, whereas, the weekly average is 26 for the three weeks just mentioned.

The number of lives lost by shipwreck on our coasts in 1859 was 1,645, of which 877, or more than one-half, were lost in the same three weeks. The number of fatal accidents in British coal-mines, by accumulation of noxious gas, also rises far above the average in the month of October, 1859. There were in all 81 fatal accidents, of which 18 happened in October, leaving an average of less than 6 for each of the other months of the year.

The diagram shows that from the 1st to the 19th of October, the atmospheric pressure did not vary greatly, but the temperature of the air was far above the average (49° F.) for October. The effect of such a long sequence of very warm days and nights in checking the ventilation of mines is shown by the occurrence, within 18 consecutive days, of 12 fatal accidents in eleven different localities. These were: