destruction around have taken place in the ultra-volcanic regions at the times pointed out by Zadkiel and his compeers. We have no personal interest - as we have more than once before stated in becoming apologists for Zadkiel [Capt. Morrison], but when we remember his many fulfilled predictions and the contumely by which he has sometimes been visited by ill-advised critics, we incline to the belief that he is one of the best abused men of the age. Whatever may be the cause or causes of earthquakes, there appears to be nothing satisfactorily provable in the many theories hitherto advanced by scientific men when viewed apart from magnetic actions; and whilst, therefore, the subject remains in so much obscurity, there ought not to be any repugnance to the investigation of planetary conditions is one means of solving the difficulty. In conclusion, we would direct our readers attention to an interesting letter on the subject by our esteemed correspondent W. H. White, Esq."
[This communication with its diagrams will be found in the St. Leonards Gazette of Oct. 24th 1863.]
The Weather and its Prophets
The following is also extracted from an editorial article in the St. Leonards Gazette of Oct. 17, 1863.We accept the truth of this quoted paragraph, and having occasion to know that very many of our readers would willingly endorse the acceptance, we offer that as a reason for again venturing to treat of a subject which repetition has divested of novelty. There was a time, since which no very long time has elapsed; when every person, jealous of his or her reputation as a reasonable being would be slow to admit a belief in human power to foretell the weather, even a few days in advance; but now that the subject has Government authority for its importance in the appointment of a Meteorologic Office and a staff of weather clerks, there seems to be no longer a dread that a belief in weather prophecies will raise the question of one's sanity. The subject, indeed, is now more than ever a topic of daily converse, and although much has yet to be accomplished before a scrutinizing public willIn a humorous paragraph, a London periodical, treating of "The Englishman and the weather" says "Why does Jones - why do I - and if you come to that, why do you, dear Brown, though you won't admit it - why do we all attach so much importance to the weather? Why, because it does of a truth really influence our fate in life, our chance in success, our health and tempers, in a wondrous way on this right little, tight little island. Ask the Cornish fisherman, the under-writer at Lloyds, the station master on a junction line, your London physician, your tradesman or cab-driver, how far the weather concerns them - their cures and profits, and then remember the difference which a bright summer's morning and a dull November fog will make in your spirits. (yes, let us confess that in our variable climate the height of the mercury is an important point)"
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