154 DORSET MONTHLY RAINFALL, 1856-95. 



register is complete for an entire year, and the 40 years are arranged 

 in decennial periods. 



There are altogether 88 stations 63 with registers of less than 

 10 years' duration, 18 between 10 and 20 years, five from 20 to 30 

 years, and two exceeding 30 years. Bridport accounts for seven of 

 the 88, Swanage for four, Lyme Regis for three, and seven other 

 centres have been provided with two stations at one time or 

 another. To economise space they are not enumerated, but may be 

 inferred from "Dorset Annual Rainfall, 1848-92," and from subse- 

 quent reports, which also give their height above ground and 

 sea-level. Thus 70 centres are represented by 88 stations. The 

 average duration of the registers is a small fraction over eight 

 years. 



An ideal station, not prejudicially influenced by the proximity of 

 buildings or vegetation, where the surroundings remain unchanged, 

 where the rain gauge once placed is never shifted from the original 

 position, and where the same plan of observation is maintained year 

 after year, is very desirable as a standard, but is never found 

 in practice. A time comes when the longest register inevitably 

 breaks down by the removal of the observer or from some other 

 cause. The Melbury register, which alone covers the 40 years 

 under discussion, is no exception. It is marred by the indifferent 

 way in which it was at one time kept a matter not of material 

 consequence, perhaps, in ascertaining the annual fall, but most 

 important in investigating the monthly distribution of rain ; and 

 the continuity was broken in 1892, as mentioned in the Report on 

 Dorset Rainfall for 1894. In preparing Tables I. and II. in the 

 Appendix, the returns from Melbury for 1885 and 1892 were 

 excluded. However, it seems from a comparison with Cheddington 

 that the amount of rain collected is about the same in the new 

 position as in the old, and in the subsequent Tables the records of 

 these years have been incorporated. 



It is uncertain how far observers have followed the rule adopted 

 by Mr. Symons of assigning to the previous day the rain usually 

 measured at 9 a.m. In the earlier years more observers than 



