123 



REMARKS ON THE METEOROLOGY OF 1868. 



The most correct notion of the weather of the last year, as a whole, 

 will be derived from a short review of the character of the several months. 

 This will be chiefly derived from the records in my hands from this county ; 

 but these will be rendered much more interesting and instructive by com- 

 parison with other parts, on some occasions, where the phenomena are 

 strongly marked. 



January began with sharp frost, which continued till the 9th ; after- 

 wards it was generally mild, unsettled, and rather wet. The lowest temper- 

 ature at Penzance was 26° ; Helston, 24° ; Truro, 17° ; Bodmin, 22° ; 

 Altarnun, 16°. Mr. C. U. Tripp mentions that Dozmare Pool was covered 

 with ice three inches thick on the 4th. There were 17 frosty nights in this 

 month at Altarnun ; at Trm-o, 11. On the breaking up of this frost on the 

 loth, there was a very heavy fall of rain, in the west especially. Mr. 

 Pilchards states that at Penzance the gauge registered 2-50 inches in 20 

 hours ; the heaviest fall he ever recorded. At Truro, on the same day, the 

 fall was 1-77 inch. It blew hard at this time, but there were heavier gales 

 from the 18th to 22nd, when the Prussian barque, Die Sonne, was lost on 

 Pra Sands, with all hands except two ; at Altarnun strong trees were up- 

 rooted. The remainder of the month was unsettled, and it closed with 

 a gale from S.W. ; which, however, was much more violent elsewhere ; 

 amounting at Liverpool to a hurricane, which, about noon of the 1st Feb- 

 ruary, attained a velocity of from 100 to 120 miles per hour. The rainfall 

 was largely above the average for the month a^ Penzance and Truro, and 

 considerably so at Bodmin. This arose from the heavy rains ; the wet days 

 not being more than usual. It is worth noticing that Helston escaped 

 this excess in both respects ; the rainfall being slightly, the number of rainy 

 days greatly, less than the average. The rather rare phenomenon of ice 

 rain, which was witnessed on the Chilterns on the 10th, and at Bath on the 

 11th, was noticed by Mr. Tripp at Altarnun on the 9th. On the whole, 

 the character of the weather was much the same during this month through- 

 out the British Isles ; but the extent of our obligation to the Gulf Stream 

 was conspicuously shown by the severity of the season even in the South 

 of Europe, contrasted with its mildness in this country. No farther off 

 than Honfleur the docks and part of the outer harbour were frozen over, 

 and enormous ice blocks floated about the bay. At Toulouse the basin of 

 the Garonne was one sheet of ice. At Montpellier the temperatm-e was 

 steady at 18°, the thick layer of snow which fell at the beginning of the 

 month remaining frozen hard. As for Paris, the Seine had not been so 



f3 



