TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION A. 487 
By the same method of computation, carried out in a somewhat different 
manner, gradually extending the period, with a smaller and smaller number ot 
stations, a slightly different result was arrived at, the mean rainfall of England 
coming out at 32°41 inches for the forty years 1861-1900, for the sixty years 
1841-1900 at 32:28 inches, and for the seventy years 1831-1900 at 32:25 inches. 
Taking into consideration the extreme variability of rainfall, the divergence in 
these results is too small to affect the value, for all practical purposes, of this 
method of computing average rainfall, and it is extremely improbable that any 
method of equal or greater accuracy by which the average rainfall over England 
may be computed for a long period will give a result appreciably less than 32 or 
more than 323 inches. 
