44 Metkorology. 



included in the next measurement. He further explained that 

 the high humidity in November was occasioned by fog rather 

 than by rain. 



Floods on the Nith. 



Mr James Lennox moved a vote of thanks to Mr Andson for 

 his valuable paper, remarking that it was the result of a whole 

 year of constant watching. Alluding to the floods, he mentioned 

 that notwithstanding the continued heavy rain in the last week 

 of December, a mark in the boathouse showed that the river Nith 

 had on a previous occasion risen 2 feet 3 inches higher than it 

 did on any day in December. 



Mr Ruthei'ford said he had known the water to rise higher 

 than in December half-a-dozen times, he should say, since he 

 went to live at Jardington. The highest flood during that period 

 would, he thought, be about eighteen years ago. 



Mrs Brown, Barnkin of Craigs — It was either 1881 or 1882, I 

 think. I marked it on a tree higher up the valley, at a point 

 which it had never been known to reach before. 



Mr Rutherford said he had frequently seen floods higher by a 

 foot at least than those of December. The records of the rainfall 

 taken at Maxwelton House, by Mr Andson, and by himself were 

 all diff"erent ; but difierences were easily accounted for, as heavy 

 showers sometimes passed over one place and did not touch 

 another. For December Mr Andson's record was 8'39 inches ; 

 his was 7 7 inches. That was the highest record of any month 

 since he began to keep the record except February, 1894, when 

 it was 8-37 inches. 



Mr Maxwell, Terregles Banks, said while he recollected the 

 Nith being higher on previous occasions, he thought we never 

 had within the memory of the oldest inhabitant a period when 

 the country as a whole was so much flooded. He never 

 remembered, for example, so much water in the meadows at 

 Cargen as there was this winter. 



Mr Lennox said there was water in the boatliouse in December 

 for four days together, a thing which never before occurred 

 within his memory. It generally disappeared in three hours. 



Mr Watson said the Chairman (Mr Barbour) would be old 

 enouf'h to recollect a time when the floods on the Nith were not 

 only longer continued but higher. The explanation given for 

 the change was the surface drainage of the land, the water now 

 passing ofl" more rapidly to the river, and the river getting away 



