Mr. Upington on Short-hartd fVriihig. 325 



It would be desirable to know the comparative deficiency 

 of rain at every 8 or 10 feet above the level of the ground, up 

 to 100 feet, which perhaps is as high as any rain-gauoe is 

 placed upon buildings, in. order to be clear of all obstructions. 

 But when there are so many collateral circumstances to be 

 taken into the account, it seems very difficult to determine 

 upon a constant allo'vcance for any proposed height, except by 

 careful experiment, or the practical results of every day's rain 

 through the whole year. So long as this remains one of the 

 grand arcana in meteorology, and the height of the rain-gauges 

 is not particularly mentioned, it is impossible that we can 

 know the real product of rain at the ground in the different 

 parts of the country where rain-gauges are kept : indeed, J 

 much fear, from this necessary precaution not having been very 

 particularly attended to, that many of the laborious results of 

 rain caught and published are far from being what they ought 

 to be ; namely, the correct annual quantities that have fallen 

 at or near the surface of the earth. 



It is probable that these remarks, if they should be deemed 

 worth inserting in your valuable Magazine, will be contested 

 by some of your able correspondents : if so, I trust they will 

 first take a little trouble, as I have done, to draw their con- 

 clusions from practical results. 



Yours, &c. 



Glosterian. 



LXIX. On Short-hand Writing. By H. Upington, Esq^. 



[Continued from vol. lix. p. 28.] 



Blair's Hill Cork, Feb. 13. 

 T SHOULD hojie that by this time I have thoroughly sa- 

 -■- tisfied my reader, that nothing within my power has been 

 left untried to convey to him a comprehensive idea of my de- 

 sign. I shall now proceed in the same manner I have hitherto 

 done, and lay before him, previousl}' to the production of my 

 alj)habet, the method which I pursued in its formation. 



I first directed my attention towards the " scale of charac- 

 ters," and found, that of the first series or right lines there 

 were but three remaining; having, for the sake of nuiscular 

 execution and the promotion of lineality, relintjuished botli the 

 diagonal descending ones / and \, and substituted in their 

 stead* the looped characters ^ equal to ^y^, and d^ = C^. 

 The first [i)air] being somewhat less complex tlian tlie second, 

 and contributing much, by its ascending dir**ction, to counter- 



* Tlie loss occiibioncd by this substitution has been already calculated. 



act 



