46 



deficient in summer, the south-westerly taking their place, 

 the summer is wet ; if they are at a minimum through all the 

 Seasons, the result would generally be a wet year altogether. 



How now has it been in the case of the late hot summer 

 of 1868 ? If we look into the Registers, we shall find that 

 while north-east, north, and north-west winds, or, as we may 

 briefly call them, northerly winds, were all alike deficient 

 from the middle of January to the end of i\Iay (with the 

 exception of April, in which month they were more frequent), 

 the south-westerly and westerly taking their place, these same 

 northerly winds were the prevailing winds through a great 

 part of June, nearly the whole of July and August, and the 

 first half of September, the true north-easterly being especially 

 constant in July, when the weather was hottest and most 

 settled. * 



But let us proceed to consider the whole season in detail^ 

 which, though certainly a very hot one, especially as regards 

 the month of Jidy, was not so entirely unprecedented as some 

 persons suppose.f The first thing observable is that it was 

 not merely a summer of high temperature, but the tempera- 

 ture had been higher than ordinary from a very early period 

 of the year. November and December, 1867, had both been 

 true winter months, each having a mean temperature below 

 the average, accompanied by northerly winds. The first 

 eleven days of January, 1868, were likewise cold, but the 

 winter may almost be said to have then terminated, so com- 

 plete and lasting a change in the weather occurred imme- 



* Thus Mr. Lowe, of Nottingham, speaking of the hot weather in a letter to 

 the editor of the Times, dated July 15, remarks, — "We had scarcely any east 

 wind in the spring, and its prevalence now accounts for the great heat and 

 drought." 



t See " Symons's Meteorological Magazine," No. 34 (Nov., 1868), p. 161, 

 where it is shown that at Linton Park, Staplehurst, " the average temperature 

 of the five summer months of May, June, July, August, and Septemher, was 

 this last season only a trifle over that of 1865 for the like period." 



