XVI. Abstract of Meteorological Observations for 1843, made at Edinburgh, in North Latitude 55° 57′ 20′′, 3° 10′ 30′′ W. L., distant from the Sea two Miles. By ROBERT D. PAUL, Esq., XVII. Abstract of Meteorological Observations for 1. Sandstone Pillars and Caves of North-Western Aus- tralia. 2. On the Chemical Constitution of Wol- fram. 3. Analysis of Ancient and Fossil Bones. 4. The Geographical Distribution of the Articu- ERRATA. THE EDINBURGH NEW PHILOSOPHICAL JOURNAL. On the Temperature of the Frith of Forth, and on the Specific Gravity of its Water. By JOHN DAVY, M.D., F.R.S., Lon. and Ed., Inspector-General of Army Hospitals, L.R. (Communicated by the Author.) WHEN my attention was first directed to the subject of inquiry announced in the heading of this notice, it was my design to have carried on from month to month a regular series of observations on the temperature of the sea of the Frith of Forth, and on the specific gravity of its water, with the expectation that the results collected for two or three years might be of some value, and especially in connexion with the climate of the coast of Scotland and its islands. Interrupted in this design by leaving Edinburgh, the observations I have now to offer are few in number, reaching only from September 1842 to last April; few, however, as they are, I would hope that they may not be altogether useless, and sure I am, they will not be so, should they lead to more extended inquiry. The temperature of the sea, as given in the following table, was ascertained by immersing a thermometer, the scale of which had been carefully corrected, in the water at the head of Leith Pier, or, as on two occasions marked by an asterisk, when the sea was too rough to make the observations there, at the stairs close to the Lighthouse; and the water, the specific gravity of which is given, was taken up at the same time. and places. VOL. XXXVI. NO. LXXI. JAN. 1844. A Table shewing the Temperature of the Air and Sea, and the Spec Gravity of Sea Water, at Leith, from September 1842 to Ap It may be useful to insert another table, for which I am indebted to Mr Adie junior, shewing the mean monthly temperature of the air, and the quantity of rain that fell in 1842, and in the spring months of the following year, in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, viz. at Canaan Cottage, which is 246 feet above the mean height of the sea. Comparing the mean monthly temperature of the air, as given in this table, with the temperature of the sea for the months in which it was determined, it appears, as might be expected, that there is in the latter a greater uniformity than is observable in the former. The summer of 1842 was one of unusually high temperature, as was also the autumn, followed by a winter of ordinary coldness, with the exception of the month of December; on which account, perhaps, the sea may have been somewhat warmer this year than usual. And owing to the unusual dryness of the whole year, the specific gravity of the sea-water may have been a little higher than ordinary. The influence of rain in lowering the specific gravity is indicated in the results obtained in January, February, March, and April. The very low specific gravity of the water on the 5th of February was probably occasioned by an unusual influx of fresh water into that part of the harbour from which the portion tried was taken, brought down by the river (the Water of Leith) that enters the sea near the port. In confirmation of this, it may be remarked, that, on the 2d of April, after some heavy showers, when water taken up at the pier-head was of the specific gravity 1.0248, another portion collected at the Light-house stairs, on the harbour side, was so low as 1.0062, seeming to indicate that the fresh water there might even have been floating on the salt. The small range of temperature of the sea and air incumbent, and the general uniformity of the specific gravity of the sea water, as shewn in the first table, putting aside the exception just referred to, is each well marked and remarkable. The equability of temperature of the air, no doubt, mainly depended on that of the water, and this probably not so much on the depth and extent of the Firth itself, as on the circumstance of the tides to which it is subject, connecting, as it were, this narrow sea with the ocean. A Greek of Corfu, Nicander Nucius, who visited Britain in the reign of Charles V., happily describes our island as "laved continuously by the ebb and flow of the ocean." To him, accustomed to his own constant lake-like sea, this perpetual flux and reflux, alternately inundating and leaving dry a great |