45 
ascertained, the ratio of each year’s rainfall in that period to that of 
the sixty years, ending with 1869, had been calculated, and this ratio 
_was shewn as the per centage of the mean. From the tables published, 
the greatest per centage (138) was in 1852, and the least (58) in 1742. 
The most rainy decade was that of 1770 to 1779, and the least 1740 to 
1749. In the mean of the last six decades there had been but little 
variation. In the decade 1850 to 1859 the rainfall was nearly five per 
cent. deficient, and this occasioned some fears as to whether the rain- 
fall of the country was not decreasing, but, as the mean of the last 
decade, 1860 to 1869, was slightly above the average, there need be no 
apprehension on this point, 
The distribution of rain in England was influenced chiefly 
‘by the prevailing winds, which were south-westerly. As we 
proceeded inland the rainfall gradually decreased, until we reached 
the eastern coast, where the smallest totals of rainfall were re- 
corded, the average on the coast of Essex and Norfolk being about 
22 to 23 inches, In the mountain districts of England and Wales the 
largest totals were registered. The wettest spot in Europe was the 
Stye, the mean rainfall there for five years being 192°8 inches. There 
were several stations in this neighbourhood were the rainfall exceeded 
130 inches annually. 
As regarded the distribution of rain in Europe, rainfall in 
Spain was small, the mean at Madrid being only 16 inches, and 
at Alicant 17 inches; the south of France was also dry, the rain- 
fall at Toulouse being 19 inches ; in Italy the amounts were greater, 
at Genoa, 51 inches; Milan and Rome, 38 inches; and Pisa, 49 
inches. In Austria the rainfall was small, at Vienna only 16 inches ; 
_ Russia was also dry, the mean at St. Petersburg being 16 inches. The 
rainfall in Asia was very varied ; in Siberia it was said no rain falls ; 
whilst Cherrapongee, in India, had a total of 610 inches, and is the 
most rainy place known in the world. Africa, which many people 
imagined a burning desert, had been badly observed, but Sierra Leone 
had a rainfall of 86 inches, and Algiers a mean of 35 inches. In North 
America the fall was 153 inches at Belize, in Honduras, and 285 inches 
at Matonba, Guadaloupe. The greatest amount in Australia was 70 
inches at Port Macquarie, New South Wales. Of foreign rainfall, 
however, we had as yet no very definite knowledge, and must wait for 
it until accurate observations have been made for some years. 
Turning to the consideration of the rainfall of Sussex, the South 
