ON SUNSPOTS AND RAINFALL. 



255 



following table ; 

 America is given 

 given. 



in column two the mean variation for Europe and 

 ; and in column three the variation for Europe alone is 



Each of these variations shows that the sunspots and rainfall were 

 below or above their means in the same years, except the eleventh. This 

 exception is owing to heavy rains at some stations in Great Britain in 

 1866, on the Continent in 1867, and at Bombay in 1865 and 1866. 



On the other hand, the rainfall at the stations in the southern hemis- 

 phere was greatly below the average in 1865-66-67. Hence the mean 

 rainfall variation for all the stations (Table XL.) is a closer approximation 

 to the sunspot variation than the variations in the above table. 



62. The seventy-nine stations in Table XL. include almost all the 

 principal observatories in the world. If we take the latter alone, we get 

 the following results : — 



63. Taking only ten observatories, as widely separated as possible, the 

 results as given in next table are obtained. 



64. The comparisons which have now been made between the rainfall 

 and the sunspots for each of the four cycles from 1824 to 1867 are not 

 liable to any objection that may be founded on the plea of a dispersion of 



