42 Transactions. 



— and of these 8 exceeded 80 deg, The warmest month was 

 August, with a mean temperature of Gl*4 deg., but June and July 

 fell short of it by only 1 deg. ; while March and April were the 

 most remarkable for their excess of temperature above the average, 

 that of March being 4 degs. above, and that of April, as already 

 noticed, no less than 5*7 deg. The coldest month of the year was 

 January, with a mean of 36'9 deg., which was 1*3 deg. below 

 the mean of the last seven years. February, September, and 

 November were also under average, but only to the extent of a 

 fraction of a degree in each case. The number of days on which 

 the protected thermometer fell to and below 32 deg. was 52, with 

 an aggregate of 213 deg. of frost for the year. This compares 

 very favourably with the previous years, with the single excep- 

 tion of 1889, which had indeed 55 nights of frost, but an aggre- 

 gate of only 193 deg. The average of the seven years is 

 somewhere about 80 nights of frost, and an aggregate of 340 deg. 

 It thus appears that, while there was an exceptionally large 

 number of warm and sunny days, there was also a considerably 

 smaller number than usual of cold nights with the' thermometer 

 falling below the freezing point. The spring and summer months 

 from March to August were peculiarly warm and genial, with an 

 amount of bright sunshine to which we are little accustomed in 

 our changeable climate. I noted at the time that as early as the 

 end of March cherry, pear, and plum blossom began to unfold, 

 and that roses and other summer flowers not only came early into 

 bloom, but continued to flower to a very late period in the 

 season, and we heard of instances not a few of a second partial 

 crop of strawberries being gathered. 



Rainfall. — The heaviest rainfall of the year occurred on the 

 13th February, when 1"18 inches were registered, in connection 

 with a south-westerly storm, with a fall of the barometer to 28-800 

 inches. This was the only daj' on which the rainfall exceeded an 

 inch in the 24 hours. The next heaviest was on the 18th July, 

 with a record of 0-94 inches. The wettest month was December, 

 the amount in that month being 5-55 in., with 23 days on which 

 it fell, and February, which is often a dry month, exhibits the 

 next amount in point of quantity, viz., 4-54 in., spread over the 

 same number of days. The driest month was April, on which 1-16 

 in. fell. But January, March, June, September, and November 

 were all under the normal, each of them showing less than 2 



