100 



REPORT 1871. 



result of wbicb we had hoped to have submitted to the present Meeting. 

 Excepting in our own Reports, we are not aware that the seasonal distribu- 

 tion of rain in this country has received any attention, while on the Con- 

 tinent it has at all times been looked upon as almost equally important with 

 the gross amount. 



Although several short and interrupted sets of observations have been 

 made in Northern Derbyshire, the rainfall of that hilly district has not 

 hitherto been examined with the thoroughness which its importance deserves. 

 "VVe have in previous Eeports urged the desii'ability of several additional 

 stations being established ; and as no one else undertook the work our Secre- 

 tary did so, and by the assistance of the observer at Buxton, and Mr. 

 Hazlewood, of Castleton, was enabled to commence several sets of rain- 

 gauge observations in the district. Some others are still required, which, if 

 our funds permit, we intend to add. 



Pit-gauges. — In our last Eeport we drew attention to the fact that a gauge 

 of which the orifice was horizontal, level with the ground, but in a small pit 

 or excavation, had at Calne collected about 5 per cent, more than one of which 

 the receiving surface was one foot above the ground ; whence it followed 

 that as a great many rain-gauges (the majority in fact) are placed with their 

 apertures a foot above the surface, the records of all these gauges were 

 below what they would have been if placed in pits as just described. "We 

 gave some reasons which appeared to us to prevent the general use of pit- 

 gauges, and added the following concluding remark on page 176 : — 



" This result appears so startling that further experiments will be con- 

 ducted on the subject." 



The funds at our disposal have not allowed us to do so ; but fortunately the 

 Eev. F. W. Stow, M.A., has tried one pair of gauges mounted in this manner 

 at Hawsker, on the Yorkshire coast, a few miles south of Whitby. The 

 following are the results during 1870 : — 



Table I. — Experiments with Pit-gauges. 



