95 
METEOROLOGICAL NOTES FOR 1871. 
The detailed statement of the results obtained at Bodmin, Truro, Fal- 
mouth, Helston, and Scilly, prepared by Mr. Dymond, and published, with 
his able and very interesting comparative remarks thereon, in the Report of 
the Cornwall Polytechnic Society just issued, renders it unnecessary to notice 
as fully as in former years the observations recorded at some of those stations, 
It will be sufficient to give a summary view of the several months, em- 
bracing a glance at the climatic history of the country generally, together 
with some particulars derived from parts of Cornwall not included in the 
publication referred to. 
January began, as December had ended, with severe cold. The lowest 
temperature of the whole year (18°) at Truro, occurred on the Ist. At Altar- 
nun it was 14° on the same day. The weather became gradually milder, and 
continued so till the 18th, when a cold period set in, and lasted to the end of 
the month, but without intense frost. At Altarnun, Mr. C. U. Tripp states, 
that ‘‘ the grass thermometer fell below 32° on 28 days. The roads in this 
vicinity in a fearfully slippery state on the first 8 days. Two cases of fractured 
limbs in adults here when walking.” The temperature of the month at 
Bodmin was 5:3° below the average. There was a heavy gale, with fall of 
temperature, on 16th. The velocity at Falmouth was 60 miles per hour. The 
rainfall, which was decidedly above the average at Penzance and Helston, was 
in about the same proportion below it at Truro and Bodmin, and this differ- 
ence was more strongly marked at Altarnun. 
February calls for little remark. It wasa mild month; the average 
temperature at Bodmin was 2°3° in excess. The rainfall was below the average. 
at and west of Truro, and also at Altarnun; but rather in excess at Bodmin, 
Robin’s nest building near Truro on 18th. There was a fine Aurora Borealis 
on the 12th, which was generally observed through the evening. Mr. Tripp 
thus describes it at Altarnun at midnight: “The HE. and 8. sky was covered 
‘with rays of green and yellow light which were constantly changing their 
“position and colour. At 10.30 next morning the Aurora still seemed visible 
‘as a broad stream of white light shooting up from the N. horizon, and ex- 
“tending itself like a fan on both sides. It then gradually faded.” 
March was generally mild and spring-like. Easterly winds prevailed 
after the 22nd. The average temperature at Bodmin, was 3° in excess. The 
close of the month was bleak through the county; severely so at Altarnun, 
where the thermometer fell to 18° on 29th. The rainfall, only about half the 
average at all the stations, occurred wholly from 5th to 15th. 
Looking at the quarter generally, through the country, as estimated by 
Mr. Glaisher, the frost and snow in January stopped all outdoor farm work ; 
pastures were bare, and the scarcity of fodder was severely felt. Towards the 
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