Observations on the Weather. 503 



The two Rain Gages have been observed during ten and a half 

 months of the year. The lower gage occupies a position, about 

 two hundred feet distant from any building, and about five feet from 

 the ground : the upper one is on the top of the building, about 

 eighty feet above the other. The quantity of water has been care- 

 fully measured in both, and recorded : that in the lower, is 46.92 

 inches, and that in the upper is 38.44 inches, showing a difference 

 of 8.48 inches, or an average of a little more than .8 per month. 



In making an estimate of the true quantity, however, the water 

 from melted snow should be rejected, because with the present in- 

 struments the difference in the quantity of snow cannot be accurate- 

 ly measured, ovvng to the force of the wind, &c. : this leaves the 

 quantity of rain for that time in the lower gage, 41.675 inches, and 

 in the upper 32.1 S5 inches, showing a difference of 9.49 inches, an 

 average of .903, per month. 



There are many circumstances to be taken into consideration in 

 coming to a true result j such as violence of the wind, time of the 

 day when it rains, density of the atmosphere at the commencement 

 as foggy, misty and cool, or hot and dry, or after a long interval of 

 dry weather, &c. A long continued and careful series of observa- 

 tions may be necessary in order to furnish a solution of this differ- 

 ence in quantity, which has already engaged the attention of many 

 scientific men, who have not been able, as yet, to agree upon any 

 general principles to account for it. 



