XXVI. METEOROLOGY. 







All inhabitants of the district are, of course, aware that the climate 

 is peculiarly mild and genial. Unfortunately sunshine-recorders are 

 neither common nor in every way satisfactory, but the results given in a 

 paper by Mr H. N. Dickson in the Scottish Geographical Magazine, 

 August, 1893, are well worth considering as exemplifying the mildness 

 of our climate. This paper contains a map in which curves represent 

 the amount of sunshine (by the Campbell Stokes burning recorder) 

 received at various points in the British Islands. The three 

 counties receive between 1300 and 1400 hours of sunshine out of 

 4400 hours " possible sunshine." In this respect they are only 

 approached in Scotland by Banff, Elgin, and Aberdeen. If we 

 follow the lines representing the same amount of sunshine through 

 England, the result is astonishing. Salisbury Plain, the Weald 

 of Sussex, and Greenwich are practically in the same position as 

 Dumfriesshire, while no part of the east coast between Montrose and 

 Skegness in Lincolnshire is so fortunate in sunshine as the Burrow 

 head. Nottingham has less than, e.g., Drumlanrig and Dumfriesshire 

 generally, and this also seems to be the case with the whole of York- 

 shire, Durham, and Northumberland. In fact, so far as sunshine goes, 

 Wigtownshire particularly should have as genial a climate as such health 

 resorts as Aberystwith and the Malvern Hills. 



This probably explains why an enormous number of escapes, 

 such as Datura Stramonium, Gagea lutea, and Tragopogon porrifolius 

 are found in the Flora. I should not wonder if observation were to 

 show that in the neighbourhood of Whitcoombe and Loch Skene, a 

 small tract of country exists in which not more than 1200 hours' sun- 

 shine is received annually, and if this is found to be the case, then the 

 three counties contain every variation found in Scotland. 



On the whole, the Solway, resulting from a great depression which 

 separates the granites and whinstones of Dalbeattie and Kirkcudbright 

 from those of Scafell and Cumberland, acts in a double manner. The 

 clouds keep to the course of the mountains from the Cumberland Hills 

 round by Whitecoombe and the Lead Hills, to Carsphairn and the Merrick, 

 and hence give us more than our correct allowance of sunshine ; and 

 this explains also the abundance of westerly winds and the resulting 

 humidity. 



On the other hand, the Gulf Stream probably assists in the pro- 

 duction of the complex currents round the Mull of Galloway. Some of 

 these currents, to judge by the Flora and garden experiments, must bring 

 a very warm climate with them round the shore of Galloway. Obser- 

 vations at Kingholm and Dumfries on the temperature of the river, 

 as contrasted with similar observations at the Island of Little Ross, 

 show ,in fact that in autumn and winter the temperature of the Solway 

 is considerably higher than that of the rivers which flow into it. The 



