270 ON TUE TEMPERATURE OF THE YEAR 1847. 



On the Temperature of the Year 1847. By J. S. Donaldson 

 Selby, Esq. [In a Letter to tlie Secretary.] 



CuKswiCK, January 19, 1848. 



Dear Sir, — I send you the annexed table, which you may 

 insert in the Transactions of the Berwickshire Naturalists' 

 Club, if you think it worthy the notice of the members. I 

 have compiled it from a register kept by my p;ardener here, 

 and with considerable care and attention, by my orders. He 

 is an intelligent person, and takes pleasure in such observa- 

 tions, so that I have little doubt of its correctness. For the 

 present year, 1848, we intend to extend our observations to 

 the pressure of the atmosphere, the force and duration of 

 the winds, and all meteorological phenomena which we can 

 observe, either peculiar or ordinary — such as the aurora, 

 shooting stars, rainbows, &c., &c. 



It appears that the mean temperature for 1846 was 4 de- 

 grees higher than for 1847, and that 12o6 inches more rain 

 fell in the former than in the latter year. 



In 1846, rain or snow fell on 171 days. 

 In 1847, do. do. do. 82 days only. 

 Should the result of a widely extended series of observations 

 of similar meteorological phenomena be nearly the same, 

 I think the greater injury to the potato crop, and many 

 other productions of the soil in 1846, as compared with this 

 past year, will be in a great measure accounted for. We have 

 not had so high a mean temperature in the north of Eng- 

 land, as that of 1846, since 1842, and seldom does it reach 

 that point; and in 1842, although 141 days were wet or 

 snowy, yet only 17"8 inches of rain fell in that year. 



In 1845, the mean temperature was 48 degrees, and the 

 rain which fell was 32-39 inches ; and, in this year, the po- 

 tato blight first appeared in England — the temperature bein^ 

 nearly the same as in the past year, but the quantity of rain 

 more by 819 inches, than that which fell in 1847. 



Should you deem the table and these remarks of any in- 



