ing pages, the results of my observations upon the climate of Uckfield during the last twenty-eight years, a space of time sufficiently long to establish its prominent peculiarities, and the knowledge of which may prove important to both present and future residents. I trust it may be considered that the value of these observations are enhanced by the fact of the series having been conducted with scarcely any interruption, and that the whole have been recorded by myself, with the exception of some portions in the years 1843 and 1844, which, however, I consider to be quite trustworthy, and they have been incorporated with the series. Thus I hope to add a link to the chain of meteorological information respecting our ever-changing climate. The parish of Uckfield lies upon an undulating tract of country, situated about midway between the South Downs, and the highest point of Ashdown Forest. The surrounding neighbourhood is well wooded, and intersected here and there by a few small rivulets, while the scenery from several elevated spots is both interesting and picturesque. The principal part of the town stands upon a gentle slope in a direction from N.E. to S.W. The upper portion is 200 feet, and the lower, at the railway station, 66 feet above the level of the sea. With respect to its geological position, I shall merely observe that with the exception of some patches of clay on the southern side of the stream, the greater portion of the parish lies upon the stratum known as the Horsted beds of the Hastings sand, which begins at the foot of the hill on the south side of Horsted Church, and extends to the borders of the contiguous counties of Kent and Surrey.

The floor of the observatory is 144 feet above the level of the sea, in latitude 50° 58′ 25′′ north, and in longitude 24 seconds east of Greenwich. A description of the building, by F. Brodie, Esq., may be seen in the sixteenth volume of the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. The maximum and minimum self-registering thermometers have been placed on a stand in perfect shade, a few inches distant from the northern side of the observatory. The stand is very similar to that known as Pastorelli's, but having a shelf at the bottom to prevent the possibility of the instruments becoming affected by any terrestrial radiation. This stand is affixed to a post, the lower end of which is sunk two

feet in the ground, and surrounded by sand in order to prevent any vibrations being communicated to the thermometers from the rotation of the equatorial dome. The bulbs were situated at a mean distance of 4 feet from the ground. The rain guage, as may be seen in the following engraving, was situated on the western side of the observatory, and about 20 feet from it.

The instruments were read every morning about nine o'clock, the maximum temperature reading was recorded for the previous day, and the minimum reading for the current day. It occasionally happened, however, that this minimum would have given an unfair reading for the succeeding day whenever a great rise of temperature had occurred during the current day. In such a case the instrument was adjusted again after sunset, when it very generally gave a correct reading for the next morning. The radiation thermometers were also read about nine o'clock, and the terrestrial radiator was subject to the same re-adjustment in extreme cases as that in the shade. The cistern of the standard barometer is suspended 146 feet above the level of the sea, and its readings recorded once a day. All necessary corrections have been applied to the readings of the several instruments.

Rainfall was measured at nine o'clock, and the amount set down to the previous day, except in a few instances, where I have been quite certain that the fall had occurred after the midnight at the close of any month, when it was recorded for the

first day of the new month. The funnel of the rain guage has a diameter of 12 inches, and is elevated six feet above the surface of the ground. This height above the ground has been maintained during the whole of the observations, without any appreciable difference in the amount collected in it, and from one of Glaisher's rain guages, the funnel of which was only four inches above the ground.

At the close of my remarks upon the climate of Uckfield, I purpose giving a list of certain prognostics of fine and wet weather, collected from both ancient and modern sources; not that I intend to give a long list of prognostics of coming weather, but merely notice of those upon which I consider some reliance may be placed in reference to atmospheric changes likely to occur in the course of a few hours or days. I have given but few prognostics relating to the general character of coming seasons, as the position of these islands almost precludes the possibility of doing so. Next to Aristotle, the most ancient collection of weather prognostics is contained in the works of Aratus,* a Greek poet who flourished during the third century before the era of Christianity. His poem, entitled "Diosemeia,” is very little known in this country, and as there has not been an English literal translation of it, I have given one so nearly literal as will render the poet's observations comprehensible to the general reader. Quotations from Virgil's first Georgic and Pliny's Natural History will, I think, be interesting also, after which I propose giving some prognostics of weather, obtained from observations of various natural phenomena, and from the habits of certain animals and vegetables.

In conclusion, I propose to offer a few remarks upon some vital statistics concerning the parishes of Uckfield, Isfield, and Little Horsted, deduced from the registration of births and deaths in those parishes, during a period of thirty years.

*To many commentators and readers the poems of Aratus have been recommended by the fact of St. Paul, when addressing the Athenian philosophers, having quoted a few words from his "Phenomena," and although the sacred historian only gives a few words in reference to the passage (Acts, ch. 17, v. 28), yet it is very probable that the apostle quoted these words to prove to his learned hearers that the doctrine of the eternity, unity, and omnipotence of the Godhead was no new invention, or confined to the Jewish nation, but the creed of the wisest of their own philosophers and poets.

CHAPTER I.

BAROMETER-PRESSURE OF THE ATMOSPHERE.

THE barometer is an instrument constructed for the purpose of ascertaining the weight or pressure of the atmosphere, by which means we are enabled to ascertain variations in the state of the weather, foretell, to a certain extent, its changes, as well as to measure the heights of mountains and the depths of mines. About the middle of the seventeenth century it was the common opinion among philosophers, that the ascent of water in pumps was owing to what they considered nature's abhorrence of a vacuum, and that fluids might be raised by suction to any height whatever. It was accidentally discovered, however, that water could not be raised in a pump unless the sucker reached to within thirty-three feet of the water in the well, and Galileo thought there might be some other cause for this ascent of water. Being unable to satisfy himself on this point, he referred the matter to his pupil, Torricelli, who entertained the idea that the pressure of the atmosphere was the real cause of the ascent of water in pumps, and that a column of water thirty-three feet in height was in exact balance with a column of air of the same base. His suspicions were fully confirmed by subsequent experiments, and it also occurred to him that as mercury was fourteen times heavier than water, a column of mercury thirty inches in height would be an actual balance to the much longer column of water. Subsequent experiments of filling a glass tube with mercury, and inverting it into a cistern containing the same metal, fully established the truthfulness of the idea, for the mercury descended to thirty inches.

Shortly after this discovery, Descartes, Pascal, and others, hinted. that if the mercury be sustained in the tube by the pressure of the atmosphere, it ought to descend lower in the tube if it were carried to a greater elevation above the sea, having a less column of atmosphere to sustain it. Pascal undertook to make the experiment by observing the height of the mercury in the tube first at the bottom of a mountain in Auvergne, and afterwards at different altitudes, by which it was found that the mercury fell lower and lower as the ascent increased, thus confirming the theory relating to the universal pressure of the atmosphere, and the consequent suspension of the mercurial column.

The circumstance of the column of mercury in the tube being narrower than the surface of the mercury in the cistern, makes no difference in the experiment, because the pressure of elastic fluids is as their density, not as their width of volume. The same result would occur if the surface of the mercury, presented to the atmospheric pressure in the cistern, were only equal to the width of the upright tube.

After the conclusion of these experiments, some time elapsed before it became known that the pressure of the air was different at different times in the same place. Further observation, however, soon discovered that with variations in its altitude there are also certain changes in the general character of the weather, and that the barometer informs us of what is taking place in the upper regions of the atmosphere, and seldom, at first, in that stratum which is nearest the earth.

At or near the level of the sea, atmospheric pressure is about fifteen pounds to the square inch, and as fluids press equally in all directions, upwards, downwards, and laterally, this pressure is equally intense over every shape and surface. The human subject bears this pressure over the body in an equal ratio, and estimating its surface at about fourteen and a half square feet, the pressure would vary to the amount of a ton weight, according as the barometer stood at its maximum or minimum. This great difference greatly affects us in respect to the natural functions of the body, and consequently our health, more especially when the change has been sudden; and the fact that certain maladies are seriously increased by unusual depres