186 A tear's weather. 



In my last letter I drew attention to the great height of the 

 barometer in January, the occasional heavy showers, and the cold- 

 ness of the nights. The old distich says : " February fill dyke, 

 either black or white," but February this year was one of the 

 most delightful probably on record. Except for the general absence 

 of flowers, kept back by an unusually cold season of three months' 

 duration, one could not, during the greater part of February, have 

 had any idea from casual observation that it was winter. The 

 blueness of the sky day after day, relieved by cirrus clouds — frozen 

 mistiness, ice crystals — the genial glow of the sun, unchecked from 

 earliest morn until it dipped — as I saw it several times during 

 the month — in a setting of resplendent purples, greens, and yellows 

 right over St. Ives Bay, beyond Cape Cornwall, its glorious disap- 

 pearance bringing out the moon which reflected from a sky cf 

 continued clearness its silvery rays. Towards midnight, chiefly from 

 the region of the Great Bear, brilliant meteors shot out, falling into 

 the illuminated arena beneath. The mean height of the barometer, 

 30*42, was higher even than January — 30" i ^-inches. Our mean 

 of heat in shade during the month was 54*3 degrees, the mean of 

 cold in night 34*9 degrees ; we had fourteen nights on which it 

 registered frost ; our coldest night was on the loth, with 8 degrees 

 of frost. We had hoar frost, a heavy dew, and mist on three 

 occasions ; this latter represents, of course, the fog of densely 

 populated towns, fog being mist (water) particles, enwrapped in 

 smoke (carbon). 



Beyond doubt February, 1891, will be best remembered for its 

 dryness. Rain fell here only Ave times during the whole month, 

 the total fall being "22 — under one quarter of an inch. February 

 last year it rained i •84-inch on 12 days, and we had hail. For easy 

 reference I append the mean of 40 years' rainfall, and the rainfalls 

 of last year and this, which I hope to continue from month to 



month : — 



40 years' mean. 1890. 1891. 



January 485-ins 5'62-ius 3'40-ins. 



February ... 3-38-ius 1 -Si-ins 0-22-ins. 



Totals... 8-23-ins 7-46-ins 3-62-ins. 



I cannot find any record these last fifty years of so dry a February 

 as 1891, the nearest being those of 1887 (•77-inch) and 1888 (■85- 

 inch). These were unusually dry, but the driest of them was three 



