METEOROLOGY. 125 



instance in 98 years of higher mean temperature in the corresponding 

 quarter, was in 1865. Its dryness latterly was unfavourable to all but the 

 wheat crops. 



Juhj was also most unusually fine ; the mean temperature was no less 

 than S^-S above the average. The rainfall was only 2-5ths of the ordinary 

 quantity ; the days on which any fell were only 8, the usiial number being 13 ; 

 and sunshine predominated over cloud to nearly the same excess. The 

 thermometer did not, however, rise above 84 at Truro, whilst it reached 96'6 

 at Greenwich, and about the same point in many midland places : — at 

 Helston, Mr. Moyle records 86°, and Mr. Tripp gives 90 for Altarnun, but 

 78J was the highest point noted at Penzance, 80 at Falmouth and Bodmin. 

 The general result was great drought, but it was much less severe in this 

 county than in the central parts of England, where the want of water, 

 combined with the great heat, acted injuriously both on animal and vegetable 

 life, to an extent unprecedented in this country ; in many places not a blade 

 of grass was to be seen ; in those districts there were many deaths from 

 sunstroke. The only thunderstorm was on the 26th ; it extended from 

 Penzance to beyond Truro, but was not intense. The eastern counties were 

 visited much more severely in this way on the 11th and 12th. 



August was generally fine and hot for the first fortnight, and the mean 

 temperature of the month was thus raised slightly (0-3) above the average ; ' 

 afterwards, the weather was unsettled, with a good deal of wind and rain, 

 till the 22nd, when it became fair and rather fresh till the end. The total 

 rainfall, just 3 inches, was rather above the average. There was a thun- 

 derstorm on the 3rd throughout the west ; at Helston it was heavy, and 

 many cattle were killed. The finer and cooler close of the month was 

 ushered in on the 22nd by a gale, not very heavy in Cornwall, but extremely 

 violent elsewhere, as in Guernsey, South Wales, and Hampshire. The 

 influence of the return of moisture was marked by a rapid restoration of 

 verdure. 



September was brilliantly fine up to the 16th, and the heat was on some 

 days unprecedentedly great, reaching on the 7th, 85 at Helston, 82 at Truro, 

 79 at Bodmin, and 87*5 at Altarnun ; at Greenwich, on the same day, it 

 rose to 92, the highest point ever recorded there in that month. The mean 

 temperature at Truro was 3-3 above the average. The summer may be said 

 to have broken up on the 17th, when a thunderstorm visited the west 

 generally, — noted as " terrific" at Penzance, less intense at Helston and Truro, 

 The total rainfall (4-03) was about one fourth more than the average (3-16) ; 

 at Bodmin the quantity (6-42) which fell after the 16th was tmprecedented ; 

 up the country, the renewal of the supply of water and the restoration of 

 vegetable life were established by the generally abundant rain. 



October began and continued in contrast with the splendid season pre- 

 ceding it ; the mean temperature was about 2 deg. less than usual, and 

 although the quantity^ of rain (5 inches) was just the mean, 23 days were 

 rainy, inrstead of 19J, the average number. The fall was very heavy on the 

 23rd and 24th, amounting at Truro to 2-05 inches, and on the latter day to 

 1-3 inch in 12 hours at Penzance. At Altarnun 8 frosty nights are recorded, 



