58 J. F. Miller, Esq., on the 



The average fall of rain is 11-593 inches ; in 1849, we have had 

 8*565, or 3*02 inches helow the usual quantity. 



The deaths in the quarter ending March 31, in the town and 

 suburb of Preston Quarter, are 168, being 16 above the corrected 

 quarterly average, which is 152. In the corresponding quarters of 

 1848 and 1849, the deaths were 250 and 187 respectively. 



The deaths exceed the births by 25 in number. 



April. — A fine, dry, but cold month. The temperature 1°*95 

 >below the average. On the 23d the cuckoo was heard, and on the 

 following day the swallow was seen in this neighbourhood. On Good 

 Friday, the 6th, two parhelia, accompanied by a halo, were seen 

 by a friend who was fishing by the river Calder. The sky was 

 covered with a thin cirro-stratus, so that the images did not present 

 any defined outline or disc, but consisted of three circular patches of 

 light of nearly equal intensity, so much so, that it was difficult to 

 distinguish the real from the phantom suns. The phenomena 

 were first noticed about 5 p.m., and they remained visible till near 

 six. The ring or halo passed through the centres of the parhelia, 

 one of which was to the left, and the other to the right of the sun, 

 with which they formed a straight line. 



May. — A fine month, with an average mean temperature. The 

 sun shone out on 29 days. The depth of rain is about an inch 

 above the average quantity. 



June. — A very dry month, and by far the coldest June I have 

 recorded in the last seventeen years. The mean temperature is no 

 less than 3°-67 below the average. The hay harvest began in this 

 neighbourhood about the 20th. 



The thermometer on the grass, on raw wool, was below the freez- 

 ing point on eight nights ; on the nights of the 8th and 10th it fell 

 to 27°-5, and on that of the 19th and 20th, to 25°. On several 

 mornings ice was seen in the immediate vicinity of the town, and on 

 the 3d of the month there was a somewhat heavy fall of snow amongst 

 the mountains. Ilighbell, Kentmere, High Street, and the moun- 

 tains around Mardale, were covered with the mantle of winter to the 

 depth of 6 inches. Such an incident has not occurred, it is said, 

 since 1827, when several sheep were lost and smothered in snow- 

 drifts on Mosedale and Helvellyn ; and Skiddaw was covered with 

 snow. Both snow and hail are recorded on the 10th in the register 

 kept for me at Bassenthwaite Halls, at the foot of Skiddaw. 



What is most remarkable, this unusual coldness does not appear 

 to have been experienced at all in the southern counties of England. 

 At Greenwich, the temperature is stated to be of the same value as 

 that of the average from 70 years, but less than that of the preced- 

 ing eight years, by 1°'9. According to Mr Glaisher's tables, pub- 

 lished in the Registrar-General's Report for the June quarter, the 

 mean temperature in Cornwall and Devonshire exceeds that of the 

 corresponding month in 1847, by 0°'7, and south of lat. 52°, it is in 



