43 
THE HELM WIND. 
By J. G. GOODCHILD, H.M. GEoL. SURVEY. 
One of the chief objects of the Cumberland and Westmorland 
- Association is the investigation of any local phenomena of special 
interest, particularly those that happen to be peculiar to the 
district, and that are at the same time imperfectly understood. It 
seems to me that the subject of the Helm Wind is pre-eminently 
_ of this nature. 
Sit is nearly peculiar to that part of Cumberland and West- 
-morland traversed by the river Eden, which, for want of a 
better name, I have commonly referred to as Edenside. Much 
has been written about the Helm Wind during the last two 
centuries (in both prose and verse), and yet it seems to me that 
the nature of the phenomenon, or at all events the exact nature of 
the causes that give rise to it, is as far off being well understood 
-asever. ‘The facts themselves are simple enough, and are known, 
only too well, to nearly every dweller by the fellsides where the 
wind prevails. Briefly stated they are something of this nature :— 
certain seasons of the year, most commonly in the late spring, 
a violent wind, with a prevalent easterly direction, rushes down- 
ward from the higher parts of the Cross Fell Escarpment, sweeps 
short distance outward across the lowlands at its foot, and then, 
