560 FOURTH REPORT — 1834. 



On an apparent Anomaly in the Measure of Rain. By Sir 

 Thomas M. Brisbane, President of the Association. 



Sir Thomas M. Brisbane has for some time observed a curious 

 fact with respect to the rain collected in his gauge, the receiver 

 of which is 7 feet from the ground, and about £10 feet above 

 the level of the sea. The rain always stands in the gauge some 

 hundredths of an inch higher an hour or two after it has fallen 

 than it does /owr or _^re //om;-* after ; and the author suggests 

 that the phaenomenon may be owing to atmospheric air absorbed 

 by the drops in their descent, and afterwards slowly escaping 

 from the gauge. 



Second Report of the Result of Twelve Months'" Experiments 

 on the Quantities of Rain falling at different Elevations above 

 the Surface of the Ground at York, undertaken at the request 

 of the Association by William Gray, Jun., and Professor 

 Phillips, F.R.S. F.G.S., Secretaries if the Yorkshire Philo- 

 sophical Society ; with Remarks on the Results of these Ex- 

 periments, by Professor Phillips. 



I. Report of the Experiments. — The report presented to the 

 Cambriclge Meeting of the Association* contained the register 

 for twelve months of the quantities of I'ain collected above the 

 top of York Minster, on the top of the Yorkshire Museum, and 

 on the ground adjacent; the elevations of the upper stations 

 being 212 feet 10^ inches, and 43 feet 8 inches. 



The present series of twelve months is continuous with the 

 former, and commences on February 1, 1833. The same gauges 

 were used with the same precautions as in the previous year; 

 but for particular objects the intervals of measuring the con- 

 tents of the gauges were purposely and considerably varied. It 

 will be recollected that the discharge-pipe of the gauges was 

 stated to have been kept stopped with a cork, and during the 

 whole of the first twelve months this was always observed ; but 

 for more than three months of the present series the cork of 

 one of the gauges (the middle one) was left out. Comparative 

 experiments were made to determine the probable increased 

 loss from evaporation arising from this cause and a compensa- 

 tion calculated. The corrected numbers are placed in the co- 

 lumn, and the original observations in smaller figures on the 

 side. 



* See Reporh of the British Association, vol. ii. p. 401. 



