24 EF. Loomis—Contributions to Meteorology. 
Mount Washington in New Hampshire exerts a marked in- 
fluence upon the rain-fall. Here the mean annual precipitation 
is 77 inches, while in the surrounding districts the mean an- 
nual fall is only 40 inches. The gen neral features of the rain- 
fall in North America conform closely to the principles above 
enunciated, and it is believed that most of the anomalies which 
now exist will disappear when we obtain more accurate obser- 
vations extending over longer periods of tim 
The distribution of the rain-fall in Woes and Southern 
than 25 inches, and about Paris it is less than: 20 peprieea This 
small rain-fall may be due in part to the small elevation of this 
district above sea-levei, but apparently it is also connected 
with the average paths of storm centers. Near the coast of 
Europe, storm centers generally pass north of Scotland; and 
those which pass south of England appear to incline towards 
the mountain ranges of North Spain and Switzerland, thereby 
leaving over France a region where barometric minima are com- 
paratively infrequent. Hungary also is a district of small 
rain-fall, hy Sioa resulting from the mountain ranges by 
which it is enclo 
The small rain- fall at Cumana (No. 708) is apparently due 
to the high hills which enclose it on all sides except the west. 
I ie not think however that the mean annual rain-fall at 
ana is as small as seven inches. The result given in the 
average your: It is “difficalt to ance some of the state- 
ments made with regard to the rain- on in South America. 
Hindvbolde says (vol. vi, p. 789), “in the new continent, the 
drought of Cumana, Ponts Araya sea the island of Marguerita 
can be compared only with the province of Ciara in Brazil, where 
sometimes (1792-1796) it does not rain during several years.’ 
According to a statement in Nature, vol. xviii, p. 385, Ciara (No. 
351) is subject to periods of severe ‘drought and also to remark- 
able floods, but the mean annual rain-fall is 52 inches. I do 
not question that the average rain-fall at Cumana is small for 
that latitude, buat oh does not seem possible that it can be as 
small as seven ine 
The niboin panting map represents pretty well the — 
tions in the preceding catalogue. The chief exceptions are, 
A few cases of anomalous rain-fall apparently restricted to a 
small geographical area. 2. A few cases of observations em- 
