METEOROLOGY. 129 



METEOKOLOGICAL NOTES FOR 1874. 



The Meteorology of Cornwall during 1874 presents few points requiring 

 comment ; the only one perhaps calling for special notice being the more 

 than iisual exemption of these western parts from severe cold towards the 

 end of the year, when other counties underwent all the rigours of an 

 intensly wintry season. In noticing presently the several months, I will give 

 a few details in illustration of this difference which was so favourable to 

 ourselves. Before doing this, I may say generally that observations have 

 now been regularly made and registered at several stations in the county, 

 fairly representing its varieties of climate, through so long a succession of 

 years, that it will hardly be necessary hereafter to speak in this place of the 

 ordinary weather history of the seasons, which is sufficiently told by the 

 figures in the tables. Such a history has been also of late very well sup- 

 plied by the popular summaries given early in the new year in the local 

 newspapers. The time seems to have arrived for a trustworthy estimate of 

 the climate of Cornwall generally, and with discrimination of its chief 

 varieties. We are in possession of records of continuous and simultaneous 

 observations for the last twenty-five years from Helston, Truro, and Bod- 

 min ; and being thus provided with sufficient evidence in regard to the 

 average differences between these places, as well as between different years, 

 we are in a position to turn to account the registers kept at other stations 

 during portions of the same period, and also those kept at any station 

 among the lot at former periods. The establishment of a recognized Observa- 

 tory at Falmouth, where the chief meteorological instruments register them- 

 selves hourly, has greatly added to our facilities for utilizing our old records, 

 and attaining trustworthy conclusions ; furnishing, as it does, the correc- 

 tions needed for observations made only twice or three times a day, as well as 

 definite information on some points — on the force and velocity of winds, for 

 instance — as to which the real facts could not before be got at. To illustrate 

 these remarks, I need only direct attention to the paper and tables prepared 

 by Mr. Dymond and just issued in the Eeport of the Polytechnic Society, 

 which is in the hands of most of our members. The comparative view of 

 the meteorology of Helston, Falmouth, Truro, and Bodmin, during the last 

 five years, is particularly valuable for the purposes to which I have just 

 referred. 



The early months of 1874 were very mild in all parts of England. In 

 January and February this was especially the ease ; the thermometer in the 

 stand at Truro not having fallen below 30°, nor below 26° on grass either at 

 Helston or Bodmin. At Altarnun it marked 20o. The rainfall was slightly 

 above the average in January and slightly below it in February. The former 

 month was unusually exempt from storms ; in the latter it blew hard on five 

 days, and the mean velocity of the wind, (19'5) as measured at Falmouth, 

 was as high as that of any month of the year, being only equalled by Decem- 



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