of ^lainfatC, &c., in 

 in 1898, 



WITH APPENDIX OF RAINFALL CONSTANTS AT 104 STATIONS. 



By HENRY STORKS EATON. 



(Past President of the Royal Meteorological Society. ) 



|F fifty-six returns received this year forty-seven are 

 complete for every month, compared with 

 forty-four in 1897. The increase has of 

 late accrued chiefly in South Dorset, now 

 adequately represented. Observers are still 

 wanted for the upper part of Portland, Marsh- 

 wood Vale, Piddletown, the district north of 

 Dorchester and round Blandford, and some 

 parts of the county in the north and east. 

 The Dorset County Chronicle is the authority 

 for abstracts of the monthly rainfall at Abbotsbury and at Upwey ; 

 and General Maclean has supplied an abstract for the new 

 station at Wimborne. The other schedules, except from 

 Bloxworth Rectory, also supplied in abstract, contain a full 

 statement of the daily rainfall. This is as it should be. An 

 abstract by itself is never very satisfactory, and always open to 

 doubt. There is no opportunity for the detection and correc- 

 tion of errors, which even the best observers are liable to make. 

 This year a comparison with the nearest stations proved conclu- 



