BY THE KEV. R. F. WHEELER, M.A. 15 



RAINFALL RETURNS. 



The rainfall returns this year ai'e again the most complete and 

 satisfactory of all the returns sent in to the Club. 



The importance of an accurate knowledge of the rainfall is be- 

 coming gradually to be very generally acknowledged, not merely 

 in its bearing on the water supply to towns and villages, but on 

 the food supply of the countrj'', and that in directions not very 

 apparent on a merely superficial view, e. g. — a dry or a wet sea- 

 son at the period when the young salmon are about to make 

 their way down to the sea may make all the difference between 

 a most abundant fishery and a very poor one. Amongst the evi- 

 dence produced before the Salmon Fishery Commissioners there 

 is a copy of a very interesting diary kept by the late Mr. R. 

 Lovegrove, of Taplow Mills, near Maidenhead. From this diary 

 we find that the take of salmon in Mr. Lovegrove's fishery in 

 the Thames, in the years 1794, 1795, and 1796, averaged about 

 248ibs. yearly. 1795 was a wet year, and the weight of salmon 

 captui-ed in 1797 was 670It)s. 1797 was also a wet year, and 

 the salmon caught in 1799 weighed 507lbs. The same fact is 

 also borne witness to by the market returns of the fish sold in 

 the London Market. Between 1850 and 1859, 1852 was the 

 year of greatest rainfall ; and in 1854, 29,655 boxes of salmon, 

 each weighing 112n)s., were sent from the United Kingdom to 

 London. 1858 was the driest year of the ten, and in 1860 only 

 20,111 boxes were sent to Billingsgate. 



It may interest some readers of the Transactions to know that 

 eveiy inch of rainfall is equivalent to 100 tons, or 22,632 gallons 

 of water for each acre of ground — more than 4i gallons on every 

 square yard. The sun and wind, it is found from some experi- 

 ments carried on over a considerable period by the late Mr. 

 Dickenson, on the chalk soils of Hertfordshire (where the aver-, 

 age fall is about 24 inches), carry off by evaporation about 14 

 inches, or 1,400 tons an acre ; and 10 inches, or about 1,000 

 tons sink into the earth, and are discharged by springs or other 

 natural drains. Wlaen an unusual fall occurs, say 30 inches dur- 

 ing the year, a very different state of affairs takes place. Three 



