60 METEOROLOGY. 



ending 12tli May, the mean daily excess of temperature was 41", whilst the 

 deficiency of daily temperatiire from 13th to 26th was 7° nearly, the weather 

 being quite wintry. 



June was a very dry month, especially in the extreme west, where less 

 than i inch of rain fell, and that almost entirely on two days; — the driest 

 month since Sept., 1865. The mean temperature was only about its average, 

 and there was a prevalence of cool breezes between N.E. and S.E. At 

 Greenwich the deficiency of temperature was l^- daily. 



July needs little comment. The rainfall was one third beyond the 

 average, and half the days were more or less rainy. A waterspout, like a 

 snaky cloud reaching to the earth, was seen near Eoughtor. The weather 

 was more unfavourable beyond this county ; in Scotland very much so. Mr. 

 Glaisher remarks that the rainfall in the south of England, beginning on 

 the night of 25th, and continuing through the next day, varied from IJ to 

 3| inches, and. was the heaviest fall in the space of a day he has ever known. 



August was decidedly dry, and the mean temperature was about 2° above 

 the average. Capt. Liddell notes the maximum at Bodmin, on 13th, 80°, as 

 the highest by 2i° ever registered there. Mr. Tripp records 87" at Altarnun 

 on the same day : the highest at Penzance was 71^". 



Septejuher was a fine month in Cornwall generally ; more so than in 

 many parts of England. The rainfall was about frd the average. There 

 was electrical discharge from west to east of this county on the 3rd. At 

 Altarnun it amounted to " a tremendous thunderstorm," and it appears to 

 have occurred with at least equal violence through a great distance eastwards 

 in the course of a few hours, as if by successive communication. It visited 

 Torrington, Newton Abbot, and Sidmouth, from 1 to_ 4 a.m. ; Bath, between 

 5 and 6 a.m. ; Cambridge, from 8 a.m. to neon; Eugby, from 6 to 10 p.m. 

 By Mr. Glaisher's estimate, from the beginning of the quarter to 7th August 

 the deficiency of temperature was more than 3" daily on the average ; after- 

 wards for the 54 days ending 30th September, the average excess of temper- 

 ature was 1|° daily. 



Octohei' was a wet month, both in regard to quantity of rain, and the 

 number of days on which it fell. Keference to the table will show that this 

 was more and more marked in going from east to west. Thus it was 2-65 

 inches at Land's End ; 5-70 at Truro ; 7-45 at Bodmin ; 9-90 at Altarnun. 

 The mean temperature was slightly below the average. 



November contrasted with the preceding month by most unusual dryness, 

 extending almost equably through the county ; the rainfall being hardly one 

 third of the average. Capt. Liddell notes it as " the driest November ever 

 recorded at Bodmin, and the highest average barometer." This di-yness was 

 owing to the great prevalence of N.E. winds, and the weather was rather 

 cold from the same cause ; there were 8 frosty nights at Truro, and 27 at 

 Altarnun. The characteristics of the month were the same throughout the 

 country, except that the temperature was several degrees above the average 

 in Scotland (Culloden). Mr. Glaisher states that the quantity of rain was 

 smaller than in any November for 50 years ; the average deficiency of temper- 

 ature was 1°'6 daily. 



