SUN SPOTS, AURORA BOREALIS, AND FLOODS.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3859, 29 November 1883, Page 4

SUN SPOTS, AURORA BOREALIS, AND FLOODS.

The numerous inundations that hai'O occurred in all parts of Europe Avithin the last year or two have raised the question avliether an increase of such floods in modern times can bo verified. Professor Paul Reis, in a pamphlet lately published, shows that in past times extraordinary floods were repeated at regular intervals, and that periods of drought and high floods occurred at intervals of from twenty-seven to twentyeight years, tho maximum being reached at every fourth high water period—that is, in from 220 to 224 years. If we reckon back from the present year we find 177G, 1778, 1784, 1709 marked as flood years, amongst ivhich the year 1784 was remarkable for an inundation greater than that of tho Rhino last year. Going back still furthor we find the years 1 oG-1 and 13-12 were tho most terrible ever known in history. According to an old record tho water was so high in the cathedral at Maury that it reached to a man's waist; it was therefore threo metres higher than tho flood at Cologne last year. Boats could be rowed over tho town walls. Researches in other directions have resulted in proving the interesting fact that the phenomena of tho aurora borcalis recurs at exactly the same intervals of about 220 years, with intermittent periods, of fifty-five to fifty-six years ; and the same thing with regard to sunspots, which generally increase and decrease within periods of eleven years, reaching the maximum every fifty-five years. Tho changes in tho magnetism of the earth also coincide ivith these observations. Dr Reis has come to tho conclusion that "terrestrial causes," such as the cutting down of forests and diverting the course of rivers, have only a secondary influence in producing inundations.