204 



MR. T. HOPKINS ON THE 



gradation from elegance and richness to their highest point 

 of grandeur and sublimity." Nearly all these eight valleys, 

 in the low flat country, present wide openings to receive 

 any wind that may be blowing towards theni^ — they con- 

 tract towards the centre where the ground rises ; and the 

 wind, whether it blow from, say, the south, south-west, the 

 west, or the north-west, will force its way over the lowest 

 points of the central chain, and be disposed to discharge 

 rain on the country a little beyond those points. Borrodale 

 is just in this situation, and must therefore receive rain 

 from every moist wind that comes from a southern or 

 western quarter, in the way that has been described ; and 

 Seathwaite seems to be in that part of Borrodale which 

 receives the largest quantity of that rain.* 



The large fall of rain in this village is then to be con- 

 sidered a result of various Tsdny winds blowing up the 

 different valleys, and particularly those which lie to the 

 south and west of it, as those winds force the mixed masses 

 of air and vapour to rise to the lower parts of the elevated 

 ridges that are at the headf of these valleys. At or above 

 these parts the vapour is largely condensed, and the rain 

 that is formed is carried forwards and deposited on the low 

 ground beyond the ridge ; but though deposited there it 

 evidently descends from a great height. 



That the height at which a rain-gauge is placed does not 

 alone determine the amount of rain that falls into it, up to 

 an elevation of 2,000 feet, is strikingly shown in the tables 

 given by Mr. Millar for the three years ending with 1848. 

 In 1846 October was the wettest month — in 1847 Novem- 

 ber, and in 1 848 February was the wettest ; and the mean 

 quantities of rain received into the gauges at the following 

 places in the wet months, to which I have added the mean 

 of the years, are as follows : — 



* Since this was written, another part that is contiguous has been 

 found to receive more rain. 



