58 



REMARKS ON THE METEOROLOGY OF 1867. 



'Befoee we look at the past year as a whole, it will be well to pass the 

 several months briefly in review, and to notice the peculiar features of 

 different localities in Cornwall, comparing them sometimes with the rest of 

 England. 



Januanj was remarkable, as in the preceding year, for its gales, but con- 

 trasted with 1866 by the lowness of its temperature. At Truro, in this 

 month, /rost was recorded on 13 days in 1867, and only once in 1866 ; and 

 whilst no snoiv at all was noticed in the last-named year, it was registered seven 

 times in the former. The mean temperature of the month was 39-7 in 1867, 

 and 46-2 in 1866 ; and the thermometer, some feet above the ground, did not 

 fall below 24o in 1866, but dropped to 8" in 1867, — the lowest temperature 

 registered in Truro during the thirty years to which the record at this Insti- 

 tution extends. This was on the night of the 14th ; on the following night 

 the minimum in the air was 11", but on the surface of the snow in my garden 

 it was 5° ; showing the intensity of cold to which everything immediately 

 above this natural blanket was subjected. The usual exemption from such 

 extremely low temperature was enjoyed by the south-western districts : the 

 lowest point reached at Penzance was 28° ; at Helston, 20". The mean of all 

 the minima was at Penzance, 38'6 ; at Helston, 37'9 ; at Truro, 34-4. At 

 Bodmin, the mean temperature of the mouth was 87"-7, 2" lower than Truro, 

 and nearly 5° below its own average for January ; but the minimum registered 

 was 11 degrees, a less intense cold by 3" than that noted at Truro. On the 

 high land at Altarnun the severity of the season was most strongly marked. 

 The mean temperature for the month was 36"'5 ; and the lowest, 4 feet from 

 ground, on 4th, 10"-o (v>'heu it was 24° at Truro) ; on 13th, 9°; on 15th, 4°-5. 

 On the ground the thermometer fell several degrees lower on each night, 

 marking 2°-5 on 15th. Mr. C. U. Tripp, to whom we are indebted for a 

 record of his observations in this as in former years, remarks that numbers 

 of blackbirds, &c., perished from the severity of the weather, and that 

 Dosmary Pool was covered with ice 4 inches thick on the 19th. In the neigh- 

 bourhood of Truro, the ponds at Pencalenick and elsewhere allowed of 

 skating to an extent but rarely enjoyed in these parts, where it is quite a 

 luxury. There was a very sharp frost at the beginning of the month in the 

 eastern parts of England, which barely touched this county, as just noticed 

 at Altarnun. On the 3rd, 4th, and 5th, the temperature fell to zero, or even 

 lower, at several stations in the Thames valley; the lowest at Epsom was 

 — 12% and at East Peckham, — 10°. 



There were two considerable falls of snow in Cornwall, as generally 



