266 
September, and December, and is greatest in May, and in the three 
summer months of June, July, and August. 
I would now speak of the rain-fall at a few other places—in 
Bath and the neighbourhood—for comparison with that at the 
Literary Institution. The rain-fall in the Paragon was measured 
by Mr. Barter for a period of nineteen years, commencing with 
1855 and ending with 1873: height of the gauge above the sea- 
level, 113 feet—The mean yearly fall as determined by these 
measurements is 34.11 inches; being more than four inches in- 
excess of the mean yearly fall at the Institution as given above. 
The greater part of this excess seems due to the circumstance 
of the first half of the above period,—previous to the year in which 
the Institution Registers commenced,—being a much wetter 
period than that which succeeded. For if the measurements at 
the Paragon and those at the Institution be compared for eight 
years, the same identical years in both cases, 1866-1873, whereby 
we get a more fair comparison, the excess is reduced to little more 
than one inch, which difference may be a constant one, supposing, 
however, that no part of this is due to the gauge at the Institution 
failing, in consequence of its position, to receive all the rain that 
falls, as before suggested.* Any how it shows the necessity of 
measuring the rain for long periods of time in order to geta 
true approximation to the mean yearly fall. 
The rain-fall at the Batheaston Reservoirs has been measured 
for many years back by Mr. Alfred Mitchell, the City Engineer. 
The Reservoirs are 226 feet above the sea-level, and 151 feet above 
the gauge at the Institution. The mean yearly fall at the Reser- 
voirs from the measurements of 12 years, 1862—1873, is 28.34 
inches: the mean at the Paragon for the same twelve years, is 
31.66 inches, being 3.32 inches more. 
The rain-fall at Weston has been measured by Mr. Bush for the 
last eleven years (1864—1874) ; the height of the gauge above 
* p, 253, 
