26 NATURAL HISTORY 
bounds are employed part of three days in the bu- 
siness, and are of opinion that the outline, in all its 
curves and indentings, does not comprise less than 
thirty miles. 
The village stands in a sheltered spot, secured 
by the Hanger from the strong westerly winds. : 
The air is soft, but rather moist from the effluvia 
of so many trees, yet perfectly healthy and free 
from agues. 
The quantity of rain that falls on it is very con- 
‘siderable, as may be supposed in so woody and 
mountainous a district. As my experience in 
measuring the water is but of short date, I am not 
qualified to give the mean quantity.* I only know 
that 
Inch. 
From May 1, 1779, to the end of the year, there fell 28 37 
From Jan. 1, 1780, to Jan. 1, 1781 : 21° 32 
From Jan. 1, 1781, to Jan. 1, 1782 : . 30.71 
From Jan. 1, 1782, to Jan. 1, 1783 y F 50 26 
From Jan. 1, 1783, to Jan. 1, 1784 5 : A S33. MOL 
From Jan. 1, 1784, to Jan. 1, 1785 ; - 33 80 
From Jan. 1, 1785, to Jan. 1, 1786 : : 4 a1 BS 
From Jan. 1, 1786, to Jan. 1, 1787 : = 3D cay 
The village of Selborne and large hamlet of 
Oakhanger, with the single farms and many scat- 
tered houses along the verge of the forest, contain 
upward of six hundred and seventy inhabitants. 
We abound with poor, many of whom are sober 
* A very intelligent gentleman assures me (and he speaks 
from upward of forty years’ experience), that the mean rain of 
any place cannot be ascertained till a person has measured it for 
a very long period. ‘‘If 1 had only measured the rain,” says 
he, “for the first four years, from 1740 to 1743, [ should have 
said the mean rain at Lyndon was 16} inches for the year: if 
from 1740 to 1750, 183 inches. The mean rain before 1763 was 
201; from 1763 and since, 25}; from 1770 to 1780, 26. If only 
1773, 1774, and 1775 had been measured, Lyndon mean rain 
would have been called 32 inches, increasing from 16°6 to 32.” 
