2 deg., or 14.7 deg. below the average; the
temperature fell below 20 deg. on 10 days, and rose above the freezing
point only on 3 days. The highest temperature in this period was
35.3 deg., the lowest 12.7 deg.. On January 17th (while staying at Playford)
my son Hubert and I noticed an almost imperceptible movement in the
upper clouds from the South-East. On that night began the terrible
easterly gale, accompanied with much snow, which lasted to the night
of the 18th. The limiting pressure of 50 lbs. on the square foot of
Osler's Anemometer was twice exceeded during this storm.--With respect
to the Diurnal Inequalities of Magnetic Horizontal Force: Assuming it
to be certain that they originate from the Sun's power, not
immediately, but mediately through his action on the Earth, it appears
to me (as I suggested long ago) that they are the effects of the
attraction of the red end or north end of the needle by the heated
portions of our globe, especially by the heated sea, whose effect
appears to predominate greatly over that of the land. I do not say
that everything is thus made perfectly clear, but I think that the
leading phenomena may be thus explained. And this is almost
necessarily the way of beginning a science.
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