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THE CLIMATE OF WEST CORNWALL. 

 By E. KITTO, Esq., F.R. Met. S. 



When the Joint Committee of the several County Societies 

 represented here to-day invited me to prepare a paper for this 

 meeting, and suggested the subject of Climate of West Cornwall, 

 I readily fell in with the suggestion. There exists a large mass 

 of data bearing on the meteorology of Cornwall, extending over 

 the last half century or more, for which we are indebted to 

 several observers, including such earnest and diligent meteor- 

 ologists as the late Dr. Barham of Truro, M. P. Moyle of 

 Helston, and Commander Liddell of Bodmin, the result of 

 whose observations have to large extent been published in the 

 Journals of the Eoyal Institution of Cornwall and of the Royal 

 Cornwall Polytechnic Society. To the mind of the general 

 public, however, who have little taste for elaborate statistical 

 information, and to the busy man who wishes to have the sum 

 of the matter put before him in as concise form as possible, the 

 labour of consulting a mass of tabulated figures, not always 

 easily accessible, and by concentrated effort to draw general 

 conclusions therefrom, is a task devoid of charm if not absolutely 

 distasteful. 



Cornwall undoubtedly possesses a fine climate, and it is 

 alike desirable that Cornishmen should be fully cognisant of 

 the climatic advantages they enjoy, and that our fellow country- 

 men beyond the borders of the County should be made acquainted 

 with the fact that they need not rush to the Piviera to escape 

 the rigour of a north or east England winter, but that on the 

 contrary they may not only find in West Cornwall all the more 

 favourable climatic advantages of the sunny south, but may also 

 avoid some of the disadvantages which that district presents, 

 and the lengthy journey to reach it. 



It is impossible to treat of this subject without having 

 recourse to statistics, but for present purposes they shall be as 

 few as possible, and of such a character as will, I hope, with the 

 help of diagrams, which perhaps convey to the mind better and 

 more correct ideas than do figures, present to you in intelligible 

 form the climatic conditions of West Cornwall. 



