AND METEOROLOGY OF THE YEAR RELATIVE THERETO. 357 



districts being about Wick, Forfarshire, and north of Fife, and 

 Mid and East Lothian and East Berwickshire. In these districts 

 it is noteworthy that the temperature of the days was fully above 

 the average of past Julys. Thus in this important month, so far 

 as sunshine and days' temperatures were concerned, the weather 

 of the Lothians and the counties of Forfar and Fife was greatly 

 more in favour of the growing and flowering cereals than else- 

 where in Scotland. Except a small patch of Perthshire about 

 Pitlochrie, and a larger district including the Tweed and its 

 afHuents and lower Esk, Annan and Xithsdale, the rainfall was 

 everywhere above the average. At all places open to the west, 

 the excess was large, generally from a half to three-fourths more, 

 but rising in some places to more than double the usual amount. 

 It was also equally large in eastern districts north of the Dee. 

 If we except West Perthshire and Upper Clydesdale, the rainfall 

 w^as not excessive at inland situations. 



August. — August turned out to be a much worse month than 

 July as regards the weather and crops, the temperature being 

 T'D under the average, cloud being in excess, sunshine deficient, 

 and north-west winds considerably more prevalent than usual. 

 The defect of temperature was about equally partitioned between 

 the days and the nights, and was, besides, remarkably uniform in 

 all parts of the country. On the other hand, the rainfall was 

 most unequally distributed. Thus, if we except Dee and Donside, 

 part ol Orkney, the coasts of the Clinch, Mull, and Clydesdale, 

 the whole of Scotland to the north and west of a line drawn from 

 Montrose round bv Perth and Douirlas to Kirkcudbrifrht, had a 

 rainfall less than the average, the deficiency in some districts, 

 such as the shores of the Moray Firth, Strathtay, and Argyll, 

 being from 30 to 50 per cent. ; but from the Firth of Forth to 

 the Cheviots, the rainfall was excessive, in many cases disastrously 

 so, the excess above the mean in some parts of East Lothian being 

 upwards of 150 per cent. Thus, tlien, in the important grain- 

 growing districts of Berwick and the Lothians, the weather of 

 August 1881 was felt far more disastrously than elsewhere. This 

 weather may be considered to have been at its worst on the day 

 of the great review at Edinburgh, and the low temperature of 

 that and following days. 



Septembek. — September, as regards its temperatures, its par- 

 titioning between the days and nights, and its distribution over 

 the country, may be regarded as a fair average harvest month, 

 not so, however, as regards its rainfall, which was most abnormal 

 in its distribution. If a line be drawn from Aboyne, passing 

 southwards tlirough Perth, Cupar, Linlithgow, liowliill, and 

 Wolfelee, it will divide Scotland into two widelv different divi- 

 sions as respects the rainfall ; to the east of the line the rainfall 

 was in excess of the average, whereas to the west of it the rain- 



