Climatology. io^ 



from lo to 15 degrees and that the times of the maxima and 

 minima are retarded : that at 24 feet below the surface the 

 range is not more than ^j4, the periods of maxima and minima 

 being as compared with the surface nearly reversed : and that 

 at from 50 to 100 feet below the surface the temperature scarcely 

 varies. According to the observations of Mr. Abbey at Horton Hall 

 near Bradford in i860 the temperature of the ground at one foot 

 below the surface was upon the mean of the year one degree and a 

 half above that of the air in the shade at four feet from the ground, 

 the difference between the means of the extreme months being 

 less in the ground than in the air by 5 "8, and the extremes of 

 cold and heat being both cut off. The ground was lower than 

 the air in March, May, June and July, higher during the rest 

 of the year. Some of the deepest springs which we have in 

 North Yorkshire do not appear to vary at all. The Cayton Bay 

 spring, which supplies Scarborough with water and which issues 

 from the calcareous Oolitic cliffs at a height of 75 feet above 

 high-water mark is stated by Dr. Cooke to be always at 49 

 degrees. A copious spring between Scawton and Rievaulx, the 

 waters of which, like those of the other, sink through the 

 calcareous beds of the Middle Oolite to gush out at the surface 

 of the Oxford Clay, I have tested at various times both in 

 Summer and Winter and always found it to be about 48 degrees. 

 A third spring, situated under similar geological circumstances 

 in a deep shaded ravine immediately beneath the village of 

 Scawton I have found at 48 both in Spring and Summer. But 

 probably these invariable or nearly invariable springs are confined 

 to the limestone. Of those which vary February appears to be 

 the month of the minimum, and either August or September that 

 of the maximum temperature, the difference between the 

 two varying mainly according to the depth below the surface 

 from which the water comes. At Gormire a spring gushing out 

 of a steep bank composed of the arenaceous rocks of the Lower 

 Oolite with an eastern exposure and situated at an elevation of 

 about 150 yards above the sea-level was tested month by month 



July 1888. 



