16 ON RAINFALL IN A WOODED COUNT1JY 



Something of this description has been undertaken several years 

 ago in France by M. Becquerel, who in 1868 had established, with 

 the help of the academy, five observatories in different parts of the 

 arrondissement of Montargis (department du Loiret), in each of 

 which daily observations have been made since the month of July 



1868, untU, we presume, the ill-omened recent Franco-German war 

 put a stop to all such peaceful study. The results of these observa- 

 tions, however, we are unfortunately unable at present to communi- 

 cate in this paper. They will, however, be obtained and published 

 at a future opportunity. 



In Denmark also, the Agricultural Institute of Copenhagen have 

 obtained similar observations, taken at fourteen different stations in 

 the interior, near forests, and at a distance from them ; and more 

 recently, in 1868, M. Lacour Danois was entrusted with a simdar 

 and more minute scientific mission by the Danish Government. 

 The results arrived at by the various observations contained in the 

 tables annexed to his report are briefly as follows : — 



The localities in which the observations were made form two 

 distinct groups, — the first, in Jutland; the second, in Zeeland. The 

 one consists of ten observatories, the other of four. The observations 

 were first commenced in September 1862, and were continued till 



1869. Their discussion has shown that the quantities of water 

 which fell at 9 leagues and at 2 leagues, differ from each other from 

 243 to 129 millimetres; whilst in other localities, in the middle 

 of the forests, on the outskirts, at 5 leagues distant, and in an 

 unwooded country, the differences do not exceed above 30 milli- 

 metres. Similar results were obtained from the Zeeland groups of 

 observatories, with regard to the quantity of rain which fell in forests, 

 and 2 leagues distant. These are differences too small to justify us 

 in concluding that in Denmark more rain falls by reason of forests 

 than at a distance from them. In inquiring whether the seasons do 

 not influence the distribution of rain, it has been ascertained that, 

 generally speaking, the rainfall of summer and autumn is nearly 

 double that of winter and spring. Denmark is in the region in 

 which the summer rains are prolonged into autumn ; we have 

 besides discovered this fact which is not without interest, that hi 

 six localities there falls a little more rain in summer and in autumn 

 than in winter and spring in the middle of the forests and on their 

 borders than at a distance of from 2 to 5 leagues distant. In other 

 localities the reverse is found to be the case. Ought this fact to be 

 attributed to local causes ? Tt is impossible to tell. The observa- 



