May II, 1882] 



NA TURE 



35 



and in order to maintain it in its " natural " condition it 

 would have been better if the Conservators had taken 

 counsel with some of the numerous scientific societies of 

 London which are representative of the various classes of 

 natural history students and investigators. This is indeed 

 the only point — but it is a serious one — on which we feel 

 compelled to express our disappointment at the line of 

 management taken up by the Conservators. The Epping 

 Forest Committee consists of twelve members of the Cor- 

 poration and four Verderers chosen septennially by the 

 commoners of the Forest parishes. Now a Committee 

 appointed to deal with a scientific question — and as such 

 we regard the management of a forest — cannot altogether 

 ignore the claims of natural history without incurring the 

 risk of having their proceedings compared with the 

 tragedy of Hamlet with the Prince of Denmark left out. 

 The present Verderers are Sir T. Fowell Buxton, Mr. E. 

 N. Buxton, the Chairman of the London School Board, Mr. 

 Andrew Johnston, late High Sheriff of Essex, and Mr. D. 

 J. Morgan. The names of these gentlemen encourage us 

 to think that it is no fault of theirs if the claims of natural 

 history science are altogether ignored. 



How to deal with those waste stretches of land formerly 

 under cultivation is a question quite distinct from the 

 management of the wooded portions of the forest. While 

 for the latter a minimum of interference would in our 

 opinion be most in accordance with the views of all 

 parties, there are ample opportunities of " landscape 

 gardening" the former. In face of this fact it is some- 

 what surprising that the energies of the Conservators 

 should thus far have been chiefly directed to alterations 

 in the natural portions of the area under their charge, 

 and we are glad to see that the Essex Naturalist's Field 

 Club has taken the initiative in inviting the co-operation 

 of all natural history students interested in the preserva- 

 tion of open spaces in their natural condition, in signing a 

 protest against the destruction of the natural features of 

 Epping Forest. The form of petition has been forwarded 

 to all the scientific societies of London most concerned in 

 this question, and has already received many influential 

 signatures. If the dedication ceremony of last Saturday 

 makes the freeing of the Forest an event in the history 

 of this country, it seems but just that in a period pre- 

 eminently distinguished for its scientific culture, the 

 naturalists of London should urge their claims ere it be 

 too late. R. M. 



THE WINTER OF 18S1-2 



'THE fine winter months of 1881-2, from November to 

 ■*■ March, have been characterised by a mildness 

 rarely equalled in our British climate. Nowhere in the 

 British Islands, from Scilly to Shetland, or from Dover 

 to Yalentia, was the mean excess above the normals of 

 the temperature of these five months less than 2°'o. 

 This was the excess in the south of England ; in central 

 districts,' such as Oxford and York, it rose to 3"'o ; and 

 the excess increased on advancing northward till it 

 reached 4 ; o in the upper districts of the Tweed, Clyde, 

 Tay, and Dee, and at Culloden, and Lairg. Every- 

 where on the coasts the temperature was from half a 

 degree to a degree, relatively lower than in strictly inland 

 situations. 



In Scotland the mean temperature of each of the months 

 exceeded its normal, except in a very few localities in 

 December, when temperature was slightly under the 

 average. Each of the other months had a temperature 

 from 2 '5 to 6°'0 above the normal. In England, on the 

 other hand, the temperature of January was pretty gene- 

 rally under the average, the deficiency amounting in some 

 cases, as at Spurnhead, to nearly 2°'o ; and in the central 

 districts of Ireland the deficiency was even greater. In 

 February, in a few districts of England, temperature fell 



slightly below the normal, whereas, over large districts of 

 Scotland, in the same month, it rose to at least 5°'o above 

 the normal. 



As regards atmospheric pressure, its geographical dis- 

 tribution during these months was strikingly abnormal. 

 In each month, as regards departures from the normals, 

 there was an excess in the south, whereas in the north 

 there was a deficienc)-, or if there was an excess at all, it 

 was much less than in the south. The averages of the five 

 months give an excess above the normal of o - iSS inch at 

 Torquay, and 0171 inch at Greenwich; o'ii6 inch at 

 Llandudno ; 0-063 inch at Lissan, Tyrone, and o'o88 inch 

 at Silloth ; 0-023 inch at Islay, and 0061 inch in East 

 Lothian; 001 1 inch at Monach, Outer Hebrides, and 

 o 045 inch at Aberdeen ; but a deficiency from the normal 

 of 0019 inch at Kirkwall, 0048 inch at North Unst, and 

 0103 inch in Faro. It was to this unprecedentedly steep 

 barometric gradient from south-east to north-west from 

 the normals of these winter months, and the equally 

 unprecedented predominance and force of south-westerly 

 winds which resulted therefrom, that we owe the remark- 

 able mildness of last winter. The extraordinarily high 

 pressures which so frequently ruled on the Continent 

 during the winter, and the all but rainless weather which 

 accompanied these anti cyclones, and the low state of 

 many of the rivers on the one hand, and on the other the 

 almost unbroken succession of storms which swept the 

 Atlantic with their low pressures and destructive tempests 

 of wind, may be pointed to as the outstanding features of 

 the great atmospheric disturbance which has signalised 

 the winter of 1881-82, of which the mildness of the 

 weather in the British islands was merely an accom- 

 paniment. 



If the winters of the north- east of Scotland, from which 

 there are temperature observations since 1764, be exa- 

 mined, it is seen that the mean temperature of the five 

 months from November to March have been 2°'o, or more, 

 above the normal during eighteen winters. These winters, 

 with the amounts of the excess above the normal, are 

 given in the following table, to which is added the excess 

 or deficiency from the normals of each of the six summer 

 months immediately following : — 



Thus, so far as the north-east of Scotland is concerned, 



