In the reading of his excellent paper on the Climate of Fairlight, Mr. Rock stated that his two years observations, (April 1st, 1857 to March 31st, 1859) were two exceptional years; but as his object was not to deal with those exceptions which being general did not affect the special nature of his observations, the reader is referred to pages 90 to 92 of the present volume for any account of the atmospheric and celestial phenomena of 1859; to page 25 for winds and storms of 1857-8; and to pages 13 to 15 for the mild winter of 1858-9. The first portion of the winters 1857-8 and 1858-9 were, indeed, so warm that summer flowers were in bloom, new potatoes of a larger size were dug up at Christmas, and raspberries and strawberries were ripe and full grown as in summer. Vegetation was thus exceptional even on Fairlight Down. How far Mr. Rock's reference to animal as well as vegetable life, as being exceptional was borne out by facts there was only one phenominal case remembered by the present writer, and that was a litter of 20 pigs at a single farrow. True, the fecundity of herrings in 1859 was great, and the catches were most abnormal as described on page 161, but that was at a time when Mr. Rock read the paper he had previously prepared. There were also some
Other Piscatory Wonders
A Royal Sturgeon was caught Hastings fishermen which measured 6ft 8in. in length, and weighed 93lbs. It was exhibited at Mr. Stace's fishmonger's shop, in Castle street, and attracted much attention.
A fine shark was also caught by some of the Hastings fishermen, and was first exhibited in Havelock road, and afterwards purchased by Mr. Stace.
"What Influence can the Planets Have?"
But, as showing, by way of cause and effect, some of the more striking meteorological phenomena in the two years embraced by Mr. Rock's observations, an article bearing the above heading is here reproduced from the St. Leonards Gazette of October 1st, 1859. After propounding the question "What Influence can the Planets have?" the article referred to says "Let us see! During the month of May, 1858, three planets were located with the sun in the sign Taurus, thereby causing more than the ordinary number of simultaneous angles called aspects, in which Mercury, Mars and Uranus (disquieting members of the solar system) played a conspicuous part. From those positions we ventured to predict for that month, much electrical phenomena, storms, thunder and lighting, hail, strong winds, variations of temperature, &c. The -
