METEOROLOGY. 301 
March requires little notice. The mean temperature was about 14 
degree above the average. There was only one frost, and the minimum was 
27 degrees. For Penzance, Mr. Richards states that the thermometer had 
not fallen to 32 degrees since the Ist January. At Altarnun there were 18 
frosts, and snow on 3 days. The rainfall was a good deal in excess of the 
average at all the stations, so was the number of rainy days in the west, but 
not in the east. 
April was a fine month, with considerable range of temperature. The 
maximum at Truro was 68°, the minimum 27°. There were 4 frosts, and 3 
other days on which hail fell. The night of the 26th was the coldest; and 
at Penzance, for the first time this year, there was “hard frost, blighting 
considerable quantities of early vegetables.” The rainfall was very small, 
only half-an-inch at Truro, and proportionately at the other stations. Only 
twice, (in 1854 and 1861) has the quantity in this month been so small since 
our record began in 1838. The deficiency was less marked up the country. 
May and June need little comment. The weather was fine on the whole, 
but rather harsh. The rainfall was about two-thirds of the average. Want 
of rain was felt in the eastward districts, springs and streams were very low, 
and vegetation backward. Basing his remarks on Greenwich, Mr. Glaisher 
writes :—‘‘from the 22nd April, a long cold period set in, and the weather 
continued, with very few trifling exceptions, below the seasonable average 
till the 18th June; for this long period of 57 days, the Hentotongy of mean 
temperature was on the average 22° daily.” 
July and August may be taken together as on the whole similar. Their 
mean temperature was about the average, the first three weeks of cold being 
suddenly followed by hot weather; and subsequently cold and heat changed 
places at short intervals. The rainfall was decidedly in excess, especially 
in August, when the usual quantity was nearly doubled at Truro and the west, 
and even more than that at Altarnun, where 28 days were more or less wet, 
and 9:12 inches fell. This was disastrous for the farmers in these later 
districts ; in the earlier ones, and in the eastern counties, much of the harvest 
was secured before the rain set in. 
The same sort of weather prevailed through the first 20 days of Sep- 
tember ; afterwards it became fine and dry, and sometimes warm. The rain- 
fall was not far from the average. Mr. Glaisher remarks that “ the wind 
during the whole quarter was nearly always West, or a compound of the 
West with the South; the winds from the North and Hast were insignificant 
in duration.” The crops of cereals were below the average in quantity and 
quality. Of fruits, apples alone were abundant, and proved sound for 
storage. 
The first week of October was warm, the last very cold. The mean 
temperature of the month was more than 2 degrees below the average. The 
highest temperature was 72° on the Ist, the lowest 26° on the 28th, and 
there was frost on the five consecutive days from 26th to 30th. These days 
were, Mr. Tripp says, ‘‘ unprecedentedly cold for the month” at Altarnun. 
The rainfall was about an inch less than the average at all stations. 
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