A year's weather. 187 



times as wet as that of the present year. During the same long period 

 I find the following months only were as dry or drier than February 

 this year: — April, 1854 and 1870 ; May, 18765 August, 18805 and 

 June, 1887. To peep back into Cornish weather phenomena 

 through Mr. Francis Gregor's observations, made at Trewarthenick 

 over one hundred years ago, which this Institution possesses, is very 

 interesting. The varying aspects are made in diagrams. February, 

 1 77 1 (120 years ago), snow fell on the morning of the loth, and 

 remained on the ground till the evening of the nth, and finally 

 disappeared on the afternoon of the r3th. On eight days it was 

 frosty. It rained on eleven days, but only heavily during the night 

 of the 24th. In February, 1791 (100 years ago), were fifteen 

 fine, six cloudy, and seven rainy days ; so we may safely infer that 

 our ancestors of that time enjoyed a bright February. 

 March 3rd, 1891. 



The exceedingly dry February has been followed by one of the 

 most remarkable March months on record here. Instead of drawing 

 comparisons of dryness or wetness, one is lost for want of a parallel 

 to compare, not rainfalls but snowfalls. It would be hard to 

 describe briefly the unique appearance West Cornwall presented in 

 the middle of the month. It will be long remembered in this part 

 for its damage to trees, its fatality to sheep — one gentleman alone 

 lost nearly 200 of these valuable animals ; and its stagnation of 

 trade, yet even now, it is hard to realize that snow fell so heavily for 

 three days in March, and was so drifted by the wind that for several 

 days this city lapsed into more than primitive isolation, for it ceased 

 to do business by road or rail 3 did not read a newspaper, nor heard 

 the postsman's knock. 



Cornish people remember nothing like it, except the proverbial 

 oldest inhabitant, whose memory recalled to me a violent snowstorm 

 some fifty years ago, when the snow buried the hedges, hid the 

 gates, caused the waggoners to leave their waggons ladened with 

 timber for the mines for days by the roadside, and prevented all the 

 usual occupations of every-day life being carried on. On referring 

 to the earlier journals of the Royal Institution of Cornwall, I find 

 this very violent snowstorm recorded as occurring from the evening 

 of the 14th February to the morning of the i6th, in the year 1838. 



