gatitfall antr Jflaotis. 



By GEORGE F. BURDER, M.D., F.R.Met.Soc. 



Head at the General Meeting, Feb. Gth, 1892 . 



nriHE practical interest attacliitig at the present time to 

 -■- the question of floods in Bristol must be my excuse for 

 bringing this subject before the members of the Bristol 

 Naturalists' Society. This practical interest is of course 

 centred in the methods by which floods may be prevented ; 

 and as a consideration of these methods involves questions 

 of engineering, it may be thought presumptaous on my part 

 to undertake a discussion of the subject. The subject, 

 however, is so far meteorological that nothing quite satis- 

 factory can be done in it without accurate' observation and 

 record of local rainfall continued for a long series of years, 

 and in that respect I may perhaps claim to have some 

 special advantages, my record being now in its fortieth 

 year without a break. And as regards the engineering as- 

 pect of the subject, if my remarks should succeed in elicit- 

 ing the views of some of our engineering members, the 

 evening will not have been lost. 



The method of measuring rain is known, I suppose, in its 

 general features to most persons. I need not describe it 

 in detail. I will only say that the object in view is to 

 ascertain the depth to which the rain would lie on a level 

 surface if none of it either ran off or soaked in or evapo- 



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