924 REPORT— 1885. 
cipitated offer a practically unbroken face of highlands to the rain-bringing winds 
of the Atlantic. Further, these mountain masses present innumerabls lochs and 
valleys directly in the course of these winds, up which therefore the winds are 
borne, and being cooled as they ascend, pour down those deluges of rain which 
- deeply trench the sides of the mountains in the lines of their watercourses. The 
heaviest rainfall in Scotland, 128-50 inches, is at Glencroe in this district. 
On the other hand, the smallest rainfall, varying from about 22°50 inches to 
25‘00 inches, overspreads a large portion of the south-east of England, extending 
from the Humber to the estuary of the Thames, exclusive of the higher grouuds of 
Lincoln and Norfolk, where the rainfall rises above 25 inches. To this is to be 
added a small patch in the valley of the Thames, from Kew to Marlow. In every 
other part of the British Islands the rainfall exceeds 25 inches. 
The districts characterised by rainfalls intermediate between these extremes 
were then referred to, and it was pointed out that everywhere the key to the dis- 
tribution of the rainfall is the direction of the rain-bringing winds in their relation 
to the physical configuration of the surface. Of this law or method of the dis- 
tribution, the rainfall over the south-western counties of England is one of the 
best examples. Some of the other more striking illustrations are the Bristol 
Channel, which secures an increased rainfall for a large portion of central England ; 
the Solway Firth, together with the mountainous regions on each side of the 
entrance to it, in their influence on the singular distribution of the rainfall of the 
south of Scotland and north of England adjoining; and the mountains of North 
Wales, with the estuary of the Dee, in their relations to the rainfall of a large 
portion of England lying to the east and north-east. 
Asregards the rainfall of the twenty-four years from ] 860 to 1883, the most note- 
worthy feature is the comparatively large average amount for the second half of 
the period over nearly the whole of the British Islands. The excess is most 
marked over the more strictly eastern districts, the means of the 12 years ending 
1883 being generally from 5 to 10 per cent. greater than the means for the twenty- 
four years. 
17. Remarkable Occurrence during the Thunderstorm of August 6, 1885 
at Albrighton. By J. Beprorp Ewe tt. 
St. Cuthbert’s, my residence, is situated at Albrighton, ten miles from Wolver- 
hampton, with which it is connected by telephone. The house has a lightning 
protector twenty-five years old. The telephone wire very improperly makes earth 
on this conductor, 
The storm was at its height about half-past eight in the evening, and we had 
just retired to the drawing-room, there being only a single lamp left alight in the 
dining-room, in the centre of the corona. The telephone-bell was sounding with 
every flash of lightning, when suddenly a report like a rifle shot was heard in the 
hall, and at the same instant the servants in the dining-room were plunged into 
darkness by the lamp in the corona flashing up and then going out. (Another lamp 
was immediately put in, showing the leads were not injured.) Also at the same 
moment the telephone wires were both fused. ‘The wire sometimes used to connect 
the telephone with the drawing-room was also fused, and through it the lightning 
tried to make earth (or vice versd) all over the electric light system, succeeding in 
one place, in a bedroom over the entrance hall, where a bell-pull was close to one 
of the leads. The current struck across—showing an E.M.F. of many thousand 
volts—and fused the bell wire. None of the lead cut-outs were fused on any of 
the wires. 
On examining the burnt lamp in the dining-room, it was found to be so 
blackened that (although it was perfectly clear and bright the moment before, and, 
being a 48 volt Swan lamp, could not be overrun from 24 cells) it was with diffi- 
culty that the filament could be seen. It was burnt off at both ends where the 
platinum wire joined, and lay entire in the bottom of the globe. A few globules of 
melted glass or platinum were also rolling about within the globe. 
