r, is evidence
of a different kind, but shows the same general correspondence, and
particularly _the mildness of the winters when there were few spots_, and
their severity from 1836 to 1838, inclusive, when the spots were most
numerous:

1829.--River open all winter--some floating ice.
1830.--River closed 27th January.
1831.--Floating ice--closed 23d January--opened 20th February.
1832.--Closed in December, which was a very cold month--opened January
8, and remained open all winter.
1833.--Open all winter.
1834.--Open all winter.
1835.--Closed January 6--opened the last of the month--cold.
1836.--Closed 28th January--opened 25th February.
1837.--Closed from 8th December to 8th February. Cold year.
1838.--Closed from 13th January to 13th March. Cold year.
1839.--Closed from 6th December to 13th January.
1840.--Closed 29th December--opened 15th January.
1841.--Closed 3d January--opened 8th do.
1842.--Open all winter.
1843.--Closed 28th November--opened 5th December--open all the rest of
the winter.
1844.--Open all winter.
1845.--Open all winter.
1846.--Closed 5th December--opened again a few days--closed again on the
26th. It is not stated how long it remained closed.
1847.--Open all winter.
1848.--Much floating ice, but not closed--heavy rains and floods.
1849.--Floating ice in January, but not closed.
1850.--Floating ice, but not closed.
1851.--Open all winter--a little ice.

(December in the above table, means December previous).

This is more reliable as to the winter season than the tables of annual
means--although the evidence they afford, making due allowance for the
exceptions, is very striking.

I shall return to this part of the subject again.

But there is other evidence of the influence of these spots. Their
connection with the irregular magnetic disturbance of the earth has been
distinctly traced. Colonel Sabine, President of the British Association,
in his opening address, September, 1852, after reviewing the recent
discoveries in magnetism, says:--

"It is not a little remarkable that this periodical magnetic
variation is found to be identical in period, and in epochs of maxima
and minima, with the periodical variation in the frequency and
magnitude of the _solar spots_, which M. Schwabe has established by
twenty-six years of unremitting labor. From a cosmical connection of
this nature, su