332 METEOROLOGICAL REPORT, 1870, 



to secure, as mentioned in last year's report, have not been 

 forthcoming. 



It may be as well to mention that several of the Station 

 Masters on the North British Eailway, in the North Tyne Dis- 

 trict, and others in that locality, have been furnished with 

 guages, and it is hoped that the next Report may tell of some 

 interesting results. It is very desirable that some additional 

 observers should be obtained in the neighbourhood of Middle- 

 ton-in-Teesdale, Bishop Auckland, Medomsley, Morpeth, Bel- 

 ford, the Cheviots, and Berwick-on-Tweed. It is hoped that 

 some persons may be found in each of these districts, before 

 1871 is out, who will undertake the slight labour required to 

 register the rainfall. 



As regards the rainfall throughout the British Isles, in 1870, 

 Mr. Symons remarks in his Annual Report, a work which in- 

 creases much in value every year that passes, that " the geogra- 

 phical distribution of rain during 1870 was very simple, but 

 very remarkable ; simple, because there were only five stations 

 which were above the average — all others were below it. In 

 England and Wales the deficiency has no exceptions but York 

 and Settle : the amount of deficiency varies considerably, rang- 

 ing from a trifling excess of about an inch, or four per cent, at 

 the two stations named to more than 30 per cent, in the South- 

 ern Counties, Devon and Cornwall. At some of the Devonshire 

 stations, 1870 was drier than any year for more than a quarter 

 of a century ; in other parts, the years 1854 and 1864 had less 

 rain. 



" The resemblance between the years 1864 and 1870 is, in 

 many respects, striking. July 1864 was much drier than July 

 1870, otherwise the description of the monthly falls in one year 

 would almost answer for the other. This is notably the case 

 with respect to October ; but in 1864 the drought ended a week 

 later than in 1870, and the excessive rains (and they were even 

 more striking than those of 1870) occurred further North in the 

 vicinity of the Cheviots, instead of in Wales and along the Pen- 

 ine chain. 



