30 THE entomologist's record. 



and normal vegotation of the country which have been entirely lost, 

 or, from an insect's point of view, fatally modified by agricultural 

 and other improvements over such a vast proportion of the inland 



The climate of the coast difiers decidedly from that of the adjacent 

 inland districts, and does so in several particulars of great importance 

 to insect life. As this seems to me to be the dominating mfluence 

 amongst all the circumstances that we have to consider, it seems desir- 

 able to go into it more fully. A paper on English climatology m the 

 Quarterly Journal of the Royal Mcteoroloyical Society, October, 1892, 

 by F. C. Bayard, P.E.M.S., gives us some of the desired data. It 

 discusses ten years' observations (1880-1891). For our purposes some 

 other details might have been desirable, especially some digest oi abso- 

 lute maxima and minima, and of ranges of temperature, which pro- 

 bably have considerable bearing on our question. They would probably 

 have brought out more strikingly some of the effective differences 

 betAvcen tlic coast and inland. In regard to temperature, Mr. Bayard 

 draws attention to two great facts, viz., fa) (and this is the one 

 that is of most importance to us) "the great influence of the _ sea 

 and its tendency to increase the temperature of the sea-coast stations 

 in winter and decrease it in summer " ; (b) " that the temperature rises 

 much more rapidly than it falls, that is to say, that the average rise m 

 temperature between April and July is 12-17deg., whilst the average 

 fall from July to October is only from 8 to ISdeg., after October the 

 temperature diminishes very rapidly." Mr. Bayard does not say so, 

 but an inspection of his tables shows that this second fact is much 

 more marked at the coast than at the inland stations. At inland con- 

 tinental stations the condition is reversed, i.e., the fall is more rapid 

 in the autumn, or, rather, the fall of temperature in the autumn takes 

 place more largely before October, or, briefly, winter sets in earlier. 

 In comparing our coast with our inland stations, we are noting the 

 same differences that obtain between our insular climate and that of 

 inland Continental stations, both as regards the early fall of tempera- 

 ture in the autumn and also in the difference between summer and 

 winter temperatures. Our islands, as a whole, compare with the 

 Continent in having a cool summer and a mild winter, just^ as our 

 own coast compares with our own inland stations. These effects are 

 more pronounced on the south and west coasts than on theeast. _We 

 may analyse the south coast climate as compared with the inland into 

 the following items : — 



1.— The south coast is the most southern part of our island, and so tends to be 

 warmer at all seasons. 



2 —The actual coast (and it is the actual coast we are most concerned with), 

 and often for some distance inland, is at sea level, and as temperature falls about 

 Ideg. for each 300ft. of elevation, the more elevated interior must be colder. 



"^3 -—The equalising effect of the neighbouring mass of water, whose temperature 

 tends "to be more constant than that of the land, where practically only the surface 

 has to be warmed and cooled ; and as regards the raising the wmter temperature, 

 this water is warm water from the Gulf Stream. 



4. — The air of the coast is drier than inland. 



5.— The sea-coast stations are as a rule less cloudy than the inland ones. 



Mr. Bayard says (with regard to 4) : " We shall be struck with the 

 fact that the percentage of relative humidity is lowest, comparatively, 



