A NATURALIST'S CALENDAR FOR DORSETSHIRE. 131 



connected with the county and with some generalizations drawn 

 from its position and its physical geography, is just the kind which 

 we can most easily grapple with. We have our members scattered 

 over the whole county, many of them resident through the greater 

 part of the year, and most of them during the course of the year 

 in contact with the phenomena on which we want accurate 

 knowledge. 



As an example of what may be done in this direction I found 

 some time ago a calendar which was kept by my father whilst he 

 was Rector of Houghton, six miles from Blandford. The position 

 of Houghton is a curious one. It is a small old world sort of 

 village situated in a deep valley running east and west ending in 

 a coombe at its western end where the chalk formation rises into 

 the high plateau above Milton and Bulbarrow. Here in this valley 

 the average annual amount of sunshine must be greatly reduced, 

 for the sides are so steep that in mid-winter the sun seems scarce 

 to reach the houses at all, whilst the number of springs which rise 

 all along the bottom of the valley near the base of the chalk, 

 forming the headwater of the "Winterborne, occasion so much fog 

 and dampness that the place feels often cold and chilly, whilst in 

 the adjoining valley and surrounding country the air may be warm 

 and pleasant. From such a spot the facts to which I refer, 

 compared with those derived from other localities, might offer some 

 interesting suggestions. 



The calendar, to which I refer, was kept at the parish of 

 Houghton between 1836 and 1851, a period of 15 years, and in it 

 dates were entered on 44 different subjects in all, but as several of 

 these were almost artificial we may exclude them from our 

 consideration. I have made an extract of eleven of the more 

 important phenomena on which observations were recorded during 

 the years in question, though, in many instances, observations are 

 omitted in various years, as would naturally occur to any observer. 

 You will see by studying this calendar, which I have placed on the 

 table, that the observations refer to just those phenomena which 

 the lovers of the country and country life would be certain to 



