160 Meteorology of 1901. 



December with 4'43 in., which, however, was very little in excess 

 of the average for that month. But the year as a whole was far 

 from being a wet one, the total amount being only 34-48 in., as 

 compared with an average of 37 '4 4 in. The annual rainfalls for 

 the last fifteen years have ranged from 30-99 in. in 1887, which 

 was the driest, to 47-08 in. iu 1900, which was the wettest, and 

 ten of them have been heavier than that of 1901. The explana- 

 tion of this, of course, is that most of the months had a record 

 under the average, and only April, June, August, and October 

 above. February and March were comparatively dry months, 

 the former being the only one which registered less than an inch. 

 The members of the society are aware that in many parts of the 

 country, and especially in England, the rainfall was so deficient 

 last year as to cause serious inconvenience from scarcity of water. 

 This has not been the case in our own district. Nevertheless 

 there were occasional periods which might justly be called periods 

 of drought. The first of these was in February, when from the 

 1st to the 25th only O'lS in. of rain fell. Again, in March, from 

 the 8th to the 20th, with only three days of slight rainfall ; in 

 May, from the 10th to the 25th, of rainless days. But the most 

 serious drought was from the 25th June to the 14th July, during 

 which period not a drop of rain fell, the effect of which was 

 aggravated by the heat which then prevailed. One thing that 

 may be noted in connection with the past year is the number of 

 days on which snow fell. Not unfrequently snow is conspicuous 

 by its absence, but it has not been so in 1901. I have noted that 

 in January there were three snowy days, in February four, in 

 March one, in April three, and in December seven — 18 in all. In 

 December particularly we had something like an old-fashioned 

 winter, with unmelted snow upon the ground for a considerable 

 part of the time, and although I do not possess the means of 

 registering the amount of sunshine the general testimony is that 

 in the summer months it was considerably above the average. 



Hygrometer. — The mean temperature of the dry bulb ther- 

 mometer for the year was 47-6 deg., of the wet bulb 44-8 deg., 

 giving a difference of 2-8 deg. ; while the temperature of the dew 

 point was 41-7 deg., and the relative humidity (saturation being 

 equal to 100) 81. This is a somewhat lower humidity than the 



