132 Transaction^!. 



to Milford Haven, is— 1 inch and + U'lU inch. Southwards of 

 the last line the average rainfall of the district is— 0-10 inch; 

 north of the first line the average rainfall is + 1 inch. Tliere are 

 a few exceptional stations in Wales, Cumberland, and the west 

 coast of Scotland where the rainfall is + 2 inches, but at these 

 tlie fall has been much below the average — e.g., at Seathwaite, 

 Borrowdale, where the average rainfall for February is 12-64 

 inches, the falling off was no less than 10-04 inches. In a table 

 given in the Meteorological Magazine for March the observations 

 taken from 770 stations in the south and midland counties of 

 England show that at 129 of these stations the fall was less than 

 — 0-10 inch, and at 48 (15 of which were in Devonshire) no rain 

 was recorded. Mention must be made of the exceptionally high 

 barometric pressure which prevailed all over the country during 

 February. The mean pressure for the month at Cargen was 

 30-413 inches, corrected for sea level. The nearest to this 

 abnormally high pressure recorded at this station during 31 years 

 was in November, 1867, when the mean height of the barometer 

 for the month was 30-269 (corrected) inches. At Pembroke the 

 mean for February was 30-444 inches. 



The snowstorm of March, which principally affected the south- 

 west of England and the north of France, was one of the most 

 severe which has occurred for many years, and which was most 

 severely felt in Devonshire and Cornwall, where much damage 

 was done. Many trains were blocked in the south of England, 

 and in Devonshire and Cornwall all communication was cut off 

 between different centres for three or four days. Amongst other 

 mishaps the "Zulu" express from London to Plymouth was 

 blocked by snowdrifts at Cambourne for three days. Snowdrifts 

 from 10 to 30 feet deep were reported from many places. A 

 strong gale was experienced during the time of the snowfall, 

 and many shipwrecks occurred on the Cornish and Devonshire 

 coasts. The storm commenced on tlie 9tli, and lasted, with an 

 interval of no snow on the lltb, till the 13th. "The area visited 

 seems to have been a belt of about 120 miles wide, extending 

 from about Cheltenham on the nortli to Jersey on the South, or 

 say from Colchester on the north to Dieppe on the south, and 

 reaching from the south of Ireland eastwards to Holland." — 

 Meteorological Magazine for April. In this part of the country 

 an unusually heavy fall of snow took place on the night of the 



