A YEAR'S "WEATHER. 287 



We saw the martin on the 6th, and heard the corncrake on the 



i ith, but records a week earlier than ours have been sent to us. 



The oak was first in leaf (3rd), the ash on the 12th, nine days 



later. We have long had the rhyme ringing in our ears of 



If the oak's before the ash, 

 Then you'll only get a splash, 



&c, but one would like to get, before being frightened, better con- 

 firmation of this from recorded observations, for we are afraid that 

 like many another popular saying its derivation is quite mythical. 



June 5th, 1889. 



Last month was dry and hot. Taking the June rainfalls 

 here during the last 40 years this is the seventh as regards dryness. 

 Our driest June was two years ago (1887), when only "o^-inch — a 

 very slight shower indeed — was registered on the 6th. At Penarth, 

 about a mile from the Institution, this shower was not felt, and Mr. 

 N. Whitley, a most careful and experienced meteorologist, has June, 

 1887, in his register as rainless. Our heaviest June rainfall was 

 in i860, when in 27 days 7"38-inches of rain fell. The wettest day 

 in June was in 1877 with i"92-inches, nearly two inches of rain 

 on one day. 



We had rain on ten days last month, with one exception in 

 short showers. This exception was on the 19th, when a showery 

 day culminated at 1 1 p.m. in a sort of tropical downpour, accom- 

 panied by thunder. It is somewhat singular that the thunderstorms 

 which did so much damage throughout England in June, 1789, one 

 hundred years ago, fell on the 19th. The total rainfall for June 

 this year (1889) was "95-inch, not one inch, and of this "jo, 

 half-an-inch, fell on the 19th. As usual, at this season of the year, 

 when, after sunset, coolness condenses the latent moisture in the 

 air, the showers were mostly at night, and with us two-thirds were 

 after 9 p.m. ; we had not a shower on the morning of any day 

 during the whole month. 



It will have been noticed from our monthly weather letters 

 that we have been gradually going to the bad as regards the com- 

 parative rainfall of this year and last ; this June is a delightful 

 exception. June, 1 888, with its gales, remarkable rain, thunderstorm, 

 and its rainfall of 3 ^-inches, stands in unfavourable contrast to June 



