Transactions. 35 



pool, 47-5 degs. ; London, 48-6 degs. ; Scilly Islands, 51 -1 clegs. ; 

 and he adds the statement that, taking Britain as a whole, the 

 means of the year were about a degree and a half below the 

 average ; in some places rather more, and in others rather less, 

 but in most lower than in any year since 1879. 



Rainfall. — The number of days on which rain or snow fell was 

 201 (rain 179, and snow 22). The heaviest fall in 24 hours 

 occurred on 29th August, and amounted to two inches, which is 

 the heaviest recorded at this station since observations were 

 begun in 1886. There had been a thunderstorm during the 

 previous night, and on the next day there was an additional fall 

 of 0-60 inches. The result was that the river was heavily 

 flooded, the gauge at the New Bridge showing a depth of 9 feet. 

 Tliere was only one other day on which the fall exceeded one 

 inch, and it occurred in the same month, viz., on 7th August, 

 and amounted to 1-20 inches. There was another occasion in 

 October, however, the 27th of the month, when by a heavy 

 rainfall of 1-4 inches on that and the previous day, combined 

 with the melting of snow on the higher grounds, the river rose to 

 a height of 10 feet at the New Bridge, and flooded the Sands, so 

 as to surround the Hoddam Castle Inn, and farther down 

 extended some way up into Nith Street. The wettest month 

 was August, with a record of S-80 inches, and the next May 

 with over 4 inches. The driest months were March and April^ 

 March showing only 0-75 inches and April 069 inches. These 

 months were exceptionally cold as well as dry, especially March, 

 the temperature of which was four degs. below average. The 

 other months, in respect of rainfall, were about average, or under 

 it, that of January and December in particular amounting to 

 barely one-half of the normal. It is a rare thing for the month 

 of December to register less than 2 inches of rain or snow, as was 

 the case in the past year, and to show a period of 13 days, from 

 the 18th to the 31st, in which no precipitation took place. And 

 I may add, although this does not properly belong to the report 

 of the past year, that this drought, as it may be called, continued 

 through the first five days of January, 1893, making a period of 

 18 days in which the precipitation amounted to only one 

 hundredth of an inch of melted hoar frost and snow. The total 

 rainfall for the year (including melted snow) was 35-61 inches. 

 Mr Dudgeon reports a total of 3945 inches at Cargen, and states 



