268 
with a fall of 20.72 inc.,—1844, with a fall of 20.67 inc.,—1854, 
with a fall of 18.58 inc., and 1858, with a fall of 18.84 inches. 
The difference in the rain-fall between the wettest year (1852) and 
the driest (1854) is more than 24 inches. 
I gave some particulars respecting the rain-fall at Swaitiawick, 
as determined by Mr. Lockey’s measurements, in the paper I read 
to the British Association at the Bath meeting in 1864.* I there 
stated that the average yearly rain-fall at Swainswick was less 
than that at Bath by six inches or more.—The observations at the 
Literary Institution had not at that time been commenced ;—and 
I was indebted to Mr. Biggs for the return of the Bath average, 
which he set at 31.97 inches, the result of twenty years’ measure- 
ment, 1842-1861. These twenty years fall within the thirty years 
of Mr. Lockey’s measurements, and it is quite possible that Mr. 
Biggs’s return may be correct for that period, though very nearly two 
inches in excess of the average resulting from the measurements 
at the Literary Institution for the decade commencing with 1865 ;— 
so great is the variation of the rain-fall when measured over 
different periods of years. 
Mr. Lockey’s Registers give the fall for each month in each 
year, by which it appears that autumn is the wettest season, 
and October the wettest month in the year at Swainswick, the 
driest season being winter. This is very different from Bath, 
where winter is the wettest season; and the difference is due 
perhaps to the circumstance of the yearly totals at the two places 
being so different, and in agreement with the law above alluded 
tot respecting the wettest months, as occurring later in the year 
according as the yearly total increases. 
But it is a question of much interest why the rain-fall at 
Swainswick should be so much less than at Bath, the distance 
between the two places being only two miles?—If we take Mr. 
* See the Bath Chronicle Report of that meeting, p. 109. 
7 p. 262. 
