197 



may have enabled us to form some idea of the Deluge, for, had 

 it lasted forty days and nights, the depth of water would have 

 been 480 feet! without the breaking-up of the waters of the 

 great deep." 



The President observed that the amount of rain mentioned 

 was very unusual. The heaviest fall that ever he himself ob- 

 served in a part of Ireland almost in the same latitude as 

 Markree, but differently circumstanced in respect of moisture, 

 was 8-10ths of an inch in 45 minutes, when there was also a 

 thunder-storm. The observatory of Mr. Cooper was situated 

 in the rainiest part of Ireland, which received currents from 

 the Atlantic, charged with moisture, and was surrounded with 

 hills, from which a great deal of moisture descended. The 

 annual average fall of rain at Markree, he thought, was 42 

 inches, while at Armagh, a distance of 70 miles eastward, it 

 was only 23 inches. Two ranges of mountains intervening 

 between those places accounted for the difference. But these 

 falls of rain were insignificant in comparison with those of tro- 

 pical climates. Perhaps the most remarkable on record was 

 one mentioned in the meteorological journal which was kept 

 at his request some years ago by an officer who was stationed 

 at the mouth of the river Irawaddy, in the Birman Empire. 

 The quantity noted in this record was 120 inches in one day. 

 In tropical climates, however, the rushes of rain at certain sea- 

 sons only compensated for the extreme aridity of the climates 

 during the remaining portions of the year. There were more 

 rainy days in Ireland than in the sister country, but a smaller 

 quantity fell at a time in the former. In no part of Ireland 

 had they falls of rain equal to those which occurred at White- 

 haven and amongst the Cumberland mountains. There were 

 fall* of 1 00, and sometimes of 1 20 inches in the year at White- 

 haven, and of 70 inches at Keswick. Detailed notices of re- 

 markable showers of rain were useful and instructive. 



