358 IMPORTANCE OF REGISTERS 



preserves its value, and may prove of use, if not im- 

 mediately, yet at some future day, for such purposes 

 as the above. 



(19.) It is true that the mean date of the greater 

 number of the periodic phenomena in the accompa- 

 nying calendar may be little more than the most 

 rude approximation ; and, in many instances, there 

 has been no more than a solitary entry in one year, 

 Of course it is not to be expected that all which 

 have been registered are of the same value in this 

 respect : neither, as before said, is it exclusively our 

 object to give a table of such dates in reference to 

 climatological inquiries. Entries, which would prove 

 of little or no use in such investigations, may still 

 interest the naturalist. Pains, however, have been 

 taken to make known exactly what the precise value 

 of each recorded observation is, as regards its ap- 

 proach to a correct mean time, by annexing in all 

 cases the number of years in which the observation 

 was repeated, and from which the mean, as it stands 

 in the calendar, was deduced. 



(20.) This calendar, also, though it may not admit 

 of comparison with those formed upon the plan pro- 

 posed by M. Quetelet, may still assist observers who 

 contemplate acting upon that plan. This it may do, 

 by guiding them to the time when any of the selected 

 phenomena generally occur, and so put them upon 

 the watch, as these phenomena successively follow one 

 another, throughout the several months of the year. 

 Each month in a general way has its own distinguish- 

 ing occurrences, and it maybe convenient to have these 

 arranged to one's hand, even if the arrangement is 



