58 Mr. F. Campbell-Bayard’s Report of the 
—increases with the elevation of the station above sea-level. 
That this assumption is incorrect a single glance at Appendix III. 
will show. If we take the annual rainfall, we at once see that 
our highest station—Knockholt—instead of standing first, stands 
fifth, the station with the highest rainfall being Caterham, which 
is 175 ft. lower, and the station with the second highest rainfall 
is no less than 465 ft. lower. Again, the station with the lowest 
rainfall is Battersea, 21 ft. above sea-level; the next station is 
Nunhead, which is no less than 155 ft. higher; and the third 
station is Deptford, which is 1 ft. lower. These few facts at once 
show that other considerations besides elevation enter into rain- 
fall statistics, and these are, the position of the gaugé with 
reference to the country around. ‘To ascertain this, the only 
person capable of doing it accurately is the observer himself, if 
he would only take the trouble. He would be able to say whether 
the gauge was on the west or east side of rising ground, whether 
the rainfall is influenced by eddies occasioned by houses, hills, 
woods, &c. All that the collector of statistics of rainfall, like 
your Committee, can do is to endeavour to form groups of neigh- 
bouring stations of the aspect of which he knows but little, and 
from the records of each group to form his judgment of what the 
rainfall of the districts represented by the groups is likely to be. 
If he is careful, his estimate of the average fall will not be far 
out, though he will of course have no means of judging as to 
what may be the fall of any particular year. 
With reference to the monthly rainfall, it will be noticed that 
without a single exception October, as is well known, is the 
wettest month of the year, and then in order, with but very few 
exceptions, come November, December, August, July, and Sep- 
tember. This arrangement of the last six months of the year is 
singular, for a very large number of persons would have said that 
July was the second wettest month, whereas it is the fifth, 
August being the fourth. The first six months of the year 
seem to arrange themselves in the following order, viz. January, 
the wettest; then February, June, March, May, and April. May 
and April seem to be the driest months of the year, April having 
the smallest rainfall. 
With reference to the seasonal rainfall, the percentages have 
been calculated of the stations with the largest and smallest 
rainfall, viz. Caterham and Battersea, and they are— 
CATERHAM. | BattERSEA. 
per cent. | per cent. 
Winter (Dec., Jan., Feb.) .. . 27 | 23 
Spring (March, April, May). . 17 | 16 
Summer (June, July, August) . 24 | 27 
Autumn (Sept., Oct., Nov.) . .. 32 34 
