a year's weather. 283 



rainfall was on the 8th, "68-inch ; rain fell on fifteen days, in four 

 groups of consecutive days, namely 8th to nth, 15th and 16, 19th 

 to 21st, 26th to 31st; yet, until the rainfall of this last group, 

 we had a very dry month. Even with the continuous rain which 

 saw January out the rainfall was only 2"7i-inches for the whole 

 month, or an average rainfall for the fifteen days it fell of " 1 8-inch 

 (a little under one-fifth of an inch). With the exception of that of 

 last year (1888, 2^3-inches) last month was the driest January 

 since 1882 (2'69-inches). The wettest January we have had since 

 1850 was in the Crystal Palace year, 1 851, when it rained 9*58- 

 inches, a difference shewing 687 tons of rain more to the acre than 

 last month. We had little sunshine, some hail, and a transient 

 fog or two. Our maximum heat was 5° -I > our minimum 36 

 degrees, last year these figures were maximum 48, minimum 37*8 

 degrees, hence this year we had a slightly warmer month. 

 Respecting outdoor observations they were of a most interesting 

 character 5 we came across fourteen genera and twenty-six species 

 of wild plants in flower and many molluscs crawling that should 

 ha ve been hybernating. The birds were throughout the month very- 

 lively, and a glimpse in Rosedale, St. Clements, of a group of 

 blue titmice, a flock of five long-tailed titmice, and a pair of paired 

 great titmice was, with the hearty spring-time songs of thrush, 

 blackbird, and lark, a sign that nature was en evidence. 



February 2nd, 1889. 



The first twenty-three days of February were more or less 

 wet ; the last five, with the exception of a few flakes of snow on 

 two of them, were fine, with plenty of sunshine. The dampness 

 reached its culmination on the 14th (St. Valentine's Day), the air 

 being so saturated that even the large Pozo inscribed stone — the 

 gift of Mr. Robert Harvey — within the museum, dripped with dew. 

 A fall of rain on so many consecutive days in February has been 

 several times equalled at Truro during the last half century, and in 

 1854 rain fell on every one of the 29 days of this month, its total 

 fall being 6'02-inches. The rainfall for February, 1889, was 2*82- 

 inches, which, though our wettest February for four years, was below 

 the average of 40 years of rainfall here, which is 3 ^-inches. The 

 average British rainfall for the same month was i'6r-inches. The 



