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Show 4 DR. J. ANDERSON ON MAMMALS, REPTILES, [Jan. 5, that a heavy fall of rain had caused the collapse of some of the mud-houses of that oasis. While at Tlemgen, in the beginning of March, after experiencing two delightful days of bright sunshine, during which lizards began to show themselves, we were driven from it by a storm of rain and sleet, accompanied by a biting wind from the south-west, the direction from which these storms generally came, that lasted for two days. About this period, the railways that run southwards from Oran to the Sahara were blocked with snow. At Oran the weather was equally unsettled, clear intervals of sunshine alternating with days of heavy rain. At Milianah, on the morning of the 18th March, we awoke to find the tops of the houses and the ground covered with snow, and, during a previous storm, towards the end of February, snow had fallen as low as H a m m am B'irha. At Algiers we were delayed for thirteen days (19th March to 31st), waiting until the snow had disappeared from the mountain in Kabylia on which Fort National stands. At Kharata, at the head of the gorge Chabet el Akhira, we were storm-stayed for three days, as torrential rains, lasting for two days, had carried away parts of the road behind and in front of us. When we had arrived on the treeless plateau on which Setif stands, the frost was so intense on the morning (10th April) on which we left it, that every pool was frozen. The evening of the day following our arrival at Biskra, the wind rose with violence from the north accompanied by heavy rain which continued through the night and part of the next day. The Oued Biskra was so flooded by this storm from the Aures mountains, that the route to Sidi Okha which lies across it was closed for a day. M y experience of an Algerian winter I was told was quite exceptional; but, since m y return to this country, I have studied with interest the reports of the weather experienced in Algeria last winter, and I find that it has been even more exceptional than the previous winter. Snow fell in Algiers itself, and so heavily in Tunisia that native houses broke down under its weight, while some deaths from cold were recorded. In the west also it was very severe, as some anxiety was felt, during one of the storms, for an outlying village near Tlemgen which had become completely isolated, by reason of the snow that surrounded it. In connection with these observations on the winter climate of Algeria, I observe M . Lataste mentions the spring of 1881 was so little advanced by the middle of May, when he was at Bougie, that he was compelled to turn southwards. It was only when we had travelled as far west as H a m m a m Meskoutine, removed somewhat from the direct influence of the storms that come up from the Atlantic, that we began to experience genial weather and bright sunshine, under the influence of which snakes and lizards began to shake off the torpidity of winter, and by the time we had reached Tunis, 30th April, the heat in the sun had become so great that I abandoned the intention I had formed of going to Duirat, and sent my collector there instead. I have given these details regarding the weather encountered in Algeria in 1889-90 because the character of the winter climate does not appear generally known, and as they serve to explain, to a |