OF SRLBORNK. 19 



Inch. Hund. 



From Jan. 1, 1788, to Jan. 1, 1789 22 50 



From Jan. 1,1789, to Jan. 1, 1790 42 00 



From Jan. 1, 1790, to Jan. 1, 1791 32 27 



From Jan. 1, 1791, to Jan. 1, 1792 44 93 



From Jan. 1, 1792, to Jan. 1, 1793 .'. .... 48 56!] 



The village of Selborne, and large hamlet of Oak- 

 hanger, with the single farms, and many scattered 



from his experience as to the mean rain at Selborne, and.as to its quantity 

 in comparison with other places. The table, as supplied in the text, fur- 

 nishes materials for such a purpose. Within the period embraced in it, 

 the average quantity of rain that fell at Selborne in each year was 36-41 

 inches : the largest quantity was in 1782, a year in which much rain fell 

 everywhere in England, and when, at Selborne, it amounted to 50-26 

 inches: the smallest was in 1788, in which the registers kept elsewhere 

 show equally a deficiency ; in this year the Selborne rain was only 22f 

 inches. 



From the simultaneous observations which were made at Lyndon, in 

 Rutlandshire, it appears that the average quantity of rain that fell there 

 in each year from 1780 to 1793 was 24'171 inches ; the quantity that fell 

 in 1782 was 32-089 ; in 1788, 17-182. Mr. Barker's observations, however, 

 having been carried on for nearly sixty years, we learn from comparing 

 them, that the thirteen years through which the Selborne register was 

 kept, were years in which the quantity of rain exceeded the usual 

 average. In fifty-eight years the mean rain at Lyndon was 22*647 inches. 



During eight of the years included in the Selborne register, observations 

 of the same kind were also made, at the suggestion of Gilbert White, at 

 Fyfield, in Hampshire, and at South Lambeth, adjoining to London. 

 Looking to these eight years alone, a period too short to allow of any but 

 comparative deductions being made from it, there will result the following 

 average quantity of rain fallen, from 1784 to 1791, at 



Inches. 



Selborne 35-35 



Fyfield 25-63 



Lyndon 23-628 



South Lambeth 22-15 



Averaging fifty per cent, more than Lyndon, and upwards of fifty 

 per cent, more than the neighbourhood of London, it may well be said 

 that the quantity of rain that falls at Selborne is very considerable. The 

 excess, as is stated in the text, is altogether attributable to local circum- 

 stances. In elevated countries the rain is always more frequent and 

 more abundant than in plains ; the clouds, which would pass over level 

 surfaces, being checked in their course by hills, and pouring down upon 

 them their contents. Trees also, as they rise into the air, affect the clouds 

 in a similar manner, though not to the same extent, as hills and moun- 

 tains : the greater their mass and elevation, the nearer do they approach 

 to the form and influence which belong to a hill. E. T. B.] 



