223 



29. — Report ox the Rainfall in HERTFORDsniEE in 1878. 



By John Hopkinson, F.L.S., F.M.S., Hon. Sec. 



[Read 13th May, 1879.] 



Since the previous year a few changes have been made in the 

 stations from vrhich returns of the rainfall have been received, 

 but the number of stations and of observers is the same as before. 

 For Watford we have not received returns for last year from tliree 

 of the places at which observations Avcre taken during the two 

 previous years, namely, Watford House, Holly Bank, and Cassio- 

 bury. In place of these the only additional station is AYansford 

 House, where the observations commenced at Holly Bank are now 

 continued. Watford is still, however, well represented by the 

 three pLices from which returns have been received, Bushey Station 

 representing one end of the town, the south-east; Wansford House, 

 towards the other end, the north-west, taking the place of Watford 

 House, a few hundred yards distant ; and Oaklands, still further 

 to the north-west, well representing the area in which Holly 

 Bank and Cassiobury are situated. Besides the loss of three 

 stations at Watford, the only other place at which observations 

 have been discontinued is Hoddesdon, where I hope we may soon 

 again have an observer. Against these four losses we have the 

 new station at Watford, Brocket Hall near Welwyn, Datchworth, 

 and High Down near Hitchin, added. 



In this report an alteration is made in the arrangement of the 

 river-basins represented, the station at Cowroast, near Tring, 

 having before been wrongly referred to the basin of the Thame.* 

 It is in reality in the basin of the Bulborne, near the present source 

 of this river, and not far from the source of the Thame. We have 

 therefore, and have had so far, only three of the main river-basins 

 represented — the Colne, the Lea, and the Ouse. For the Thame 

 we re(juire an observer in the neighbourhood of Puttenham, or of 

 Long Marston, or beyond, at the extreme western corner of Hert- 

 fordshire ; and for the Brent we require an observer in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Totteiidge. A very small portion of Hertfordshire 

 is, however, comprised in the areas drained by these rivers. Of 

 the sub-divisions of the two larger river-basins which extend 

 over almost the entire county, of the Colne all are represented 

 except the Tipper Colne and the Chess, and of the Lea all but the 

 Stort. An observer is therefore required in the district to the 

 south-east of St. Albans to represent the basin of the Upper Colne; 

 in the district between Rickmansworth and Chesham to represent 

 the basin of the Chess; and in the neighbourhood of Sawbridge- 

 worth or Bishop's Stortford to represent the basin of the Stort. 

 There are also other districts where it would be an advantage to 

 have additional observers, and in order to show clearly where 



* In the tables givinj^ the rainfall in 1876 and 1877, ' Transactions,' Vol. I, 

 p. 227, and Vol. II, p. 99. 



