254 RESULTS OF COMPARATIVE OBSERVATIONS : SWITZERLAND. 



These results strongly confirm the fact shown by the Bavarian records 

 as to the extraordinary increase of evaporation in summer, and the great 

 excess of its amount in the open fields, as compared with woods. 



' The minus sign in these columns shows that there is an excess in the woods, as compared with the 

 fields. 



The amount of pecipitation that reaches the ground appears from this 

 table to be very considerably less in the woods than in the fields, with 

 two or three notable exceptions from causes not shown. This diSereuce 

 is somewhat unequally distributed, but on the whole much greater in 

 the summer months, as will doubtless appear more clearly when the 

 average of several years' observations can be shown. 



SWITZERLAND. 



Comparative observations in fields and forests in the canton of Berne, 

 Switzerland. 



A series of meteorological observations was begun in January, 1869, 

 at three different stations in the canton of Berne, Switzerland, under the 

 direction of the Mntonsforstmeister, the conditions of placing and time 

 and mode of observing the instruments being alike. At each station one 

 set of instruments was iji the open fields, and the other in the woods, as 

 in the observations above described. The stations were as follows : 



1. TnterlaJcen (Briickwald Forest): elevation G20 meters; timheT larch, 

 which at the beginning of observations was about 50 years old ; eleva- 

 tion of place for observing temperature, &c., of tree tops, 15 meters. 



2. Berne (Lohrwald Forest): 593 meters above sea level; timber red 

 fir, which in 1869 was about 40 years old. Elevation of place for observ- 

 ing temperature, &c., of tree tops, 9 meters. 



3. Frtmtrut. (Fahywald Forest) : 450 meters above sea level ; timber 

 beech, which in 1869, was 50 to 60 years old. Elevation of place for 

 observing temperature, &c., of tree tops, 14 meters. 



The observations included the temperature of the air at breast-high, 

 and in the woods at the tree tops; i)eicentage of moisture, extremes of 

 temperature, temperature of the soil at the surface of the earth, and at 

 depths of 0.3, 0.6, 0.9, and 1.2 metres below, amount of rain and melted 

 snow, number of rainy, snowy, and cloudy days, and prevailing direc- 

 tion of the winds. Apparatus was provided lor measuring evaporation 



