126 METEOROLOGY. 



at Truro there was only one. The inflixence of the prolonged heat of the 

 summer was shown by renewed flowering and fructification in many places. 



Novemher had a rainfall of 5-8 inches, largely in excess of the average 

 for that month (4-2) ; but the number of days on which it fell (16) was more 

 than one-ninth less than usual. The fall was very heavy on some days ; on 

 the 21st it was particularly so, amounting at Truro to 1-76 inch, at Bodmin 

 to 1-99, at Altarnun to 2-30, the heaviest in any one day of this year. The 

 mean temperature was about IJ degi-ee below the average : the " November 

 cold wave " passed over us between the 6th and 16th. At Truro frost was 

 registered 6 times, at Altarnun 17 ; the continued warmth o'f the soil was, 

 however, manifested even now : Capt. Liddell notes that there was a second 

 crop of pears and strawberries in his garden, and that hawthorn was in blos- 

 som at Wadebridge. 



Deceviher was remarkably warm, wet, and windy, with a low and fluctua- 

 ting barometer. The mean temperature of the month was about 5 degrees 

 above the average here, and nearly 7" at Greenwich, and the thermometer 

 never fell below 38 at Helston and Truro, or 37 at Bodmin ; at Altarnun five 

 frosty nights were noted. The rainfall at Truro (8-26 inches) was nearly 

 twice the ordinary quantity, and the same proportion held good generally at 

 the other stations ; and there was equally little exception to the equal dis- 

 tribution of raininess throughout the month, one day only having been quite 

 free from it ; the fall at Altarmm was 13-23 inches, the largest amount 

 recorded there in one month dui-ing five years. Electrical discharges were 

 more than usually frequent ; on the night of 14th- 15th the thunder and 

 lightning at Penzance are characterised as " terrific " ; but at Truro " light- 

 ning was seen, thunder not heard." On the 22nd, 28th, and 29th, however, 

 the latter locality was in close proximity to repeated explosions. Gales are 

 registered on 10 days at Helston, on 8 at Truro ; that on the 6th, although 

 not of extreme violence, was attended with thick weather, which occasioned 

 the wreck of the barque North Britain on the Eastern Green, near Penzance. 

 The excess of warmth in December more than counterbalanced the deficiency 

 of the two preceding months, and raised the mean temperature of the quarter, 

 as a whole, 8-lOths of a degree above the average of the previous 97 years, 

 as observed at Greenwich ; so the surphis of rain in this last month of the 

 year, added to some excess in October and November, made the total quan- 

 tity in 1868 more than the average annual amount, by nearly 4 inches at 

 Truro, and above 9 inches at Bodmin, notwithstanding the unusual dryness 

 of the summer. 



The following table will furnish a view, at once comprehensive and ac- 

 curate, of some of the chief features of the weather during the six summer 

 months of 1868, at Truro, compared with the same season in its average 

 condition, as estimated from the records of a pretty long series of years. It 

 will be seen that there was an excess of sunshine in every month beyond the 

 ordinary proportion, and in four months this was very strongly marked. 



