34 METEOROLOGY. 
year fell short of the average. Although August was the warmest. 
month, it was marked by an unusual number of days on which 
more or less rain fell (no fewer than 28 out of the 31, with occa- 
sional thunderstorms); but while there was less sunshine than 
usual, the nights were generally warm, as is shewn by the high 
mean minimum of 52°7 deg., which is higher than that of July by 
_3degs. The finest months of the year, and the most exceptional 
in point of warmth and dryness, were May and September, and 
particularly the latter. The first two months of the year were 
characterised by a protracted frost of unusual severity, which set 
in in the concluding days of December, 1894, and continued with 
little intermission till the 4th or 5th of March. The mean tem- 
perature of January was only 30-7 deg., as compared with average 
of 37:3 deg., and that of February as low as 28-2 deg., which is 
about 10 deg. under the normal. It will give some idea of the 
extraordinary character of this long spell of frost when it is men- 
tioned that the protected thermometer fell below the freezing 
point on 51 out of the 59 days comprised in the first two months 
of the year, and that the aggregate amount of degrees of frost 
was 207 for January and 288°9 deg. for February, in all 495-9 
deg. The climax was reached on the 8th and 10th February, on 
which two nights the mercury fell to 1 deg. below zero, a rare 
circumstance in this district. In some parts of the country con- 
siderably lower readings than this were recorded, as at Drumlanrig, 
for example, where the thermometer fell to 11 deg. below zero, 
and at Braemar, where it went down to 17 deg. below. During 
the week from the 8th to the 14th February the themometer only 
once rose above the freezing point, and one day, the ninth, the 
maximum was as low as 19 deg., while the highest of the minimum 
or night readings was only 9-7, and the mean temperature for 
that week was no more than 16 dee. It need hardly be added 
that during the greater part of the month the river Nith was 
frozen over, and that great damage was done by the bursting of 
water pipes, and no smal] amount of inconvenience occasioned by 
the scarcity of water owing to its being frozen in the supply pipes. 
In some instances this was found to be the case with pipes sunk 
three or four feet below the surface of the ground. As to the 
other months in which frost occurred, there were six days in 
March with an aggregate of 18-2 deg., six in April with an agvre- 
gate 10°5 deg., twelve in October with an aggregate of 65°8 deg. ; 
