PART in. THE CYCLE OF A YEAR. 27 



merely the necessary results of 9 A.M., then occurring 

 neither with the lowest sun nor with the least smoky 

 atmosphere of the year. 



With the rain-band, on the other hand, there is a dif- 

 ferent order observed throughout the year viz. a 

 maximum in summer, as agreeable to theory for the 

 greater amount of water -vapour then in the atmosphere ; 

 a minimum in winter, as equally agreeable to theory for 

 low temperature and the smaller amount of water-vapour 

 then possible to be carried in suspension and invisibly 

 by the air ; and finally another minimum at the vernal, 

 but not at the autumnal, equinox, a result apparently of 

 the drying north-east winds of a Scottish spring. 



On the Watery Vapour of several Islands. 



Madeira has thus, on almost every point, carried away 

 the palm for abundance of watery vapour always dissolved 

 in her quiet and steady atmosphere, as compared with 

 the three other stations we have put on their trial with 

 her ; and a further examination of the tables in our 

 Appendix II. will show that the amounts of temperature 

 variations or ranges, both through the day and through 

 the year, do regularly decrease for each station in direct 

 proportion to the largeness of the stock of such invisible 

 watery vapour there. Wherefore we may now perhaps 

 pretty safely consider the former to be an effect of the 

 latter, and infer the hygrometry of some other stations, 



