236 METEOKOLOGIOAL REPORT, 1868, 



end of the month. On the 27th, at 3 p.m., it stood at 28-168, 

 which I believe is the lowest reading I ever took : there were 

 violent gales on that day in the Channel and South of England. 



The mean height of the barometer was 29 •332, which a glance 

 at the diagram annexed will show to be a remarkable departure 

 from the comparatively even mean height of the year. 



Mean temperature of month 41*85°. 



Ditto of thirteen years 40-19°. 



Excess of 1868 1-66°. 



Mean direction of wind, S., 33° W. 



Eain on twenty-four days : amount, 3-93 inches. 



Mean height of river 3-69 feet, 



I subjoin, in a tabular form, the monthly meteorological ob- 

 servations quoted above, and append to them, as the readiest 

 mode of engaging the comprehension, a diagram of the action 

 of the thermometer, barometer, and the wind. 



The first, showing a comparison of the monthly temperatures 

 of 1868, with those of the last thirteen years (1868 included) at 

 Wylam, which will be examined with some interest from the ex- 

 ceptionally high temperature of 1868. 



The second diagram, that of the barometer, is chiefly remark- 

 able for the great depression during the month of December. 



The third diagram, of the wind, is only interesting to a limited 

 extent, the situation of Wylam being by no means favourable 

 for observations on the wind ; even the higher clouds from which 

 I generally note its course being, in some measure, I suspect, 

 influenced by the valley and river, while the force is not mea- 

 sured at all, and the amount of each wind, which ought to con- 

 sist of its direction multiplied by its force, having been assumed 

 to be of equal force, is not correct. I should not have intro- 

 duced it here but to point out how very valuable a set of wind 

 tables, of somewhat similar design, would be, if framed on ob- 

 servations made on high open ground like Kenton, Earsdon, &c., 

 with an anemometer (Robinson's, e.g.,) to note the amount of 

 each wind, as well as a good vane to indicate its direction. 

 These two quantities multiplied together would give the value 



