18 Dv Davy's Meteorological Observations. 



overflowing cand wasting torrent. lu less than twelve hours, 

 three inches of rain have fallen in Grasmere ; and, in a 

 short time, I have seen the adjoining valley of Easedale 

 flooded, the effect of the descent of some thirty or forty tor- 

 rents, which, rapidly carrying off the water from the hills, 

 have exhausted themselves, whilst the valley still remained 

 under water. And here, I may remark incidentally, that, 

 in consequence of this inequality of the sti^eams of the dis- 

 trict, there seems no prohability that they can be made 

 available, excepting on a small scale, as a mechanical power ; 

 and that there is little ground, therefore, to fear that the 

 quietude of these valleys will ever be disturbed by extensive 

 manufactory enterprise, or their beauty injured by the erec- 

 tion of the formal, incongruous buildings, which such enter- 

 prise requires. 



It may be noticed, too, as contrary to what might be ex- 

 pected in a hilly country, liable to heavy rains and to sudden 

 and considerable changes of temperature, that the atmo- 

 sphere is seldom disturbed by electrical phenomena. Thun- 

 der-storms here are of rare occurrence, as are also hail- 

 storais. During the last two years, on referring to my notes, 

 I find mention of thunder only three times, on the 8th of 

 July, the 17th of August, 1843, and on the 6th of September 

 1844 ; and each time not severe. Not a single house or 

 building, that I have heard of, is provided with a conductor, 

 and no instance, that I can learn, has occun-ed, of a building 

 of any kind having been stinick by lightning ; and I have 

 made inquiry on this point of master masons, extensively 

 employed, to whom, were an accident from lightning to take 

 place, it would be sure to be known. 



Though thunder-storms are so rare here, yet liigh winds 

 are rather of common occurrence, and stoi'ms of destructive 

 violence are not rare. During the short period under consi- 

 deration, three such have taken place, the effects of which 

 have been witness ed in the prostration of some of the largest 

 trees of this neighbourhood. Indeed, it is probably chiefly 

 owing to the violence of the winds, with the little depth of 

 soil, that this country possesses few trees of large growth, 

 such as constitute the pride and beauty of our midland coun- 



