RAIN. 



bounds are employed part of three days in the busi- 

 ness, and are of opinion that the outline, in all its 

 curves and indentings, does not comprise less than 

 thirty miles. 



The village stands in a sheltered spot, secured 

 by the Hanger from the strong westerly winds. The 

 air is soft, but rather moist from the effluvia of 

 so many trees ; yet perfectly healthy, and free from 

 agues. 



The quantity of rain that falls on it is very consi- 

 derable, as may be supposed in so woody and moun- 

 tainous a district. As my experience in measuring 

 the water is but of short date, I am not qualified to 

 give the mean quantity.* I only know that 



Inch. Hund. 



28 

 27 

 30 

 50 

 33 

 33 

 31 

 39 



37! 

 32 

 71 

 26! 



71 



80 

 55 



57 



The village of Selborne, and large hamlet of Oak- 

 hanger, with the single farms, and many scattered 

 houses along the verge of the forest, contain upwards 

 of six hundred and seventy inhabitants. 



* A very intelligent gentleman assures me, (and he speaks 

 from upwards of forty years' experience,) that the mean rain 

 of any place cannot be ascertained till a person has measured 

 it for a very long period. " If I had only measured the rain," 

 says he, " for the four first years, from 1740 to 1743, I should 

 have said the mean rain at Lyndon was 16 inches for the year; 

 if from 1740 to 1750, 18 inches. The mean rain before 1763 

 was 20-; from 1763 and since, 25 : from 1770 to 1780, 26. 

 If only 1773, 1774, and 1775 had been measured, Lyndon 

 mean rain would have been called 32 inches," increasing from 

 16 6 to 32. 



