A year's weather. 195 



rain. Recollections of weather changes touch the general mind but 

 lightly, unless, like this month, they are struck deeply by some 

 phenomenal display. What was seemingly going to be so dry a 

 year, broke its bondage when one of the most bountiful harvests for 

 twenty years touched with golden gladness hill and dale. The 

 abnormally swollen little streams and rivers about us, told a tale of 

 soddened land, and the heart felt grieved on reflecting at the sad 

 havoc wrought by the untoward rain. 



August is not the driest of months, nor is it the least free from 

 heavy downfalls of rain, an average of many years shews it to be 

 little drier than February, and wetter than March, April, May, June, 

 and July, The average August rainfall here is about 3 -inches, this 

 month it rained at Truro 6*48-inches, over twice as much as the 

 average, and my friend, Mr, F. H. Davey, of Ponsanooth, who has 

 taken charge of a rain-guage for us for nearly two years, recorded 7 '3 1- 

 inches. During the month it rained on 2 /j days, on one day nearly 

 i^-inches, on another over f of an inch, on three ^ an inch, and on 

 six over ^ of an inch. This heaviest day's rainfall in August was on 

 the day set apart for the excursion of the Royal Institution of 

 Cornwall. The representatives of the press of the two counties, 

 who were in the waggonette in which we rode, will bear me out in 

 saying that a merrier party never rode together than ourselves ; while 

 that i"48-inches of August rain poured on us. We rode through 

 miles of it, the roads had all the appearance of shallow muddy 

 rivers, the wheels of the vehicle cleaved the water just as they do in 

 running across some shallow ford. We were merry about the rain, 

 but a word of sympathy ever ran in the conversation for the suffering 

 farmer. It is beyond my province here to calculate the miles we 

 went, but every acre we saw of ripening grain had not one ounce less 

 than 150 tons of water poured upon it that day. 



There have been some inquiries as to whether we have had 

 any very heavy daily rainfalls in August. We have ! It is a month 

 noted for what the meteorologist calls "remarkable rains" The 

 one quoted is an example. I add a few other daily August rainfalls 

 for reference : — 1891, aoth, i"48-inchesj 1890, 9th, pa-inch 3 1885, 

 5th, 106-inchesj 1875, lith, i'36-inchesj 1874, 31st, i"o6-inches5 

 1866, 28th, i'o5-inches. The following are a few monthly August 

 rainfalls: — 1891, 6-483 1890,379; 1885, 3'i6 3 1881,3-553 1879, 

 S'33; 1878,4-493 1877,5-843 1876,4-373 1873,4-813 1866,4-693 



