114 REPORT—1840. 
six pouces de hauteur, qui m’avoient servi pour quelques expé- 
riences sur la vendange étoient restés vides dans mon jardin. 
La pluie de Vendredi 25 Octobre, n’avoient pas encore cessé 
de tomber, que déja ils en étoient remplis.” He then proceeds 
to state on what grounds he infers that 4 inches more of rain 
fell after the largest vessel was filled, making a total of 30 
French (32 English) inches, and then adds a statement of 
several facts, to show that the effects of this delnge in the 
neighbourhood bore a proportion to the magnitude of the 
cause. M. Arago, quoting the result, adds, “‘ Ce résultat inoui 
inspira des doutes 4 tous les météorologistes ; ou soupgonnait 
une erreur d’impression; mais M. Pagano, observateur exact, 
a écrit aux rédacteurs de la Bihliothéque Universelle, une lettre 
qui met le fait hors de toute contestation*.”’ 
226. Fortunately, however, this local deluge (for it appears by 
the letter of M. Pagano to have extended but a very short di- 
stance), is nearly rivalled by a similar fact recorded in the South 
of France by an experienced observer (who seems to have been 
in the practice of measuring the fall of rain for twenty-three 
years at least), M. Tardy de la Brossy, of Joyeuse, Dép. de 
VArdéche. M. Arago, who records the observation, and gives 
it the weight of his authority, does so in these words :—‘ Le 
9 Octobre, 1827, dans l’intervalle de vingt-deux heures, il est 
tombé dans la méme ville de Joyeuse, 29 pouces 3 lignes d’eau 
(vingt-neuf pouces, trois lignes) ; jécris le résultat en toutes 
lettres Gfin qu’on ne croie pas a une faute d’impression +.” 
When I add that these two results, surprising, and perhaps 
unexampled, as they are in the history of science, have, on 
account of the testimony by which they are established, been 
received not only in France{t and Switzerland§, but in Ger- 
many || and England@, I conceive that they are undoubtedly 
entitled to stand part of the history of meteorology **. 
227. I proceed to add a notice of a few other remarkable falls. 
* Annales de Chimie, xxvii. 207. Tt Annales de Chimie, xxxvi. 414. 
} By Arago and Pouillet (Phys. ii. 758.)- 
§ By the Editors of the Bibliothéque Universelle. 
|| By Muncke (Gehler, vii. 1240.), Kamtz (Meteorology, i. 421.), and 
Mahlmann (Abriss. 200.). 
J Encyclopedia Metropolitana, Art. Meteorology, p. 120. - 
** Mr. Espy has referred me to the fourth volume of Silliman’s Journal for 
an account of a shower hardly less surprising. At Catskill (U.S.), Mr. Dwight 
ascertained that on the 26th July, 1819, between half-past 3 p.m. and 11 P.., 
that is, in seven and a half hours, there fell into an empty barrel placed in an 
open space eighteen inches of water. A tub 154 inches deep, and nearly cylin- 
drical, was filled before sunset. Since writing the above, another fact of the 
same character has come to my knowledge. On the 25th Nov. 1826, 
thirly-three inches of rain fell at Gibraltar within twenty-six hours. This in- 
formation I received from Professor Jameson, who believes that he had it from 
the late Col. Imrie. 
