302 



METEOROLOGY. 



cold. Even at Penzance, the thermometer at night was from 4 to 8 degrees 

 below freezing point. At the other principal stations the range of tempera- 

 ture was as follows : — At Helston from 23* to 58° ; Falmouth 24° to 55^° ; 

 Truro, 14° to 56° ; Bodmin, 15° to 53° ; Liskeard, 16° to 60° ; Altarnun, 8o to 

 54°. At this last place the mean temperature from the 23rd to the 31st was 

 24-5° ; the mean of the minima for the same time being 16-6°. Mr. Glaisher 

 gives 1° as the minimum at Taunton on the 31st, the lowest among 57 locali- 

 ties. The quantity of rain, and the number of rainy days, were both every- 

 where less than usual. 



An accurate estimate may be formed of the most important peculiarities 

 of the brilliant summer of 1870, from the following table : — 



It will be readily seen, that in regard to each of the three great elements 

 of weather here numerically exhibited — the amount of sunshine, the number 

 of dry hours, and the quantity of rain — every one of the six months, from 

 April to September, was distinctly finer than the average of a long series of 

 years. It may be added that in no summer season of the still larger period 

 of 33 years, since 1838, when the observations at this Institution were 

 first recorded, has the rainfall in the summer half-year been so small. 



I had the pleasure of referring in the last summary to the important 

 addition to the means of attaining an accurate estimate of the climate of 

 Cornwall, placed within our reach by the establishment of the government 

 observatory at Falmouth, where continuous observations are recorded by self- 

 registering instruments. To these, a rain gauge, affording a similar contin- 

 uous record, has recently been added, and will give precision to our 

 knowledge in that department. It is still more satisfactory to find these 

 materials already turned to account in the most useful way by Mr. Dymond, 

 in a laborious and excellent analysis of many of the results, especially in 

 relation to horary variations, just published with the Eeport of the Cornwall 

 Polytechnic Society, where it will be available to most of our members. 



C. BAEHAM. 



