474 



Rainfall in England. 



[Oct., 



purposes, it surely ought to be possible to turn to account the 

 defective receipts of rain gauges high above the surface ; and in 

 the absence of a better, perhaps the following suggestion may be 

 of service : — Watering-places and other towns of fashionable and 

 wealthy resort, are always naturally desirous of advertising their 

 attractions. Knowing that their visitors dislike rain, their business 

 is clearly to prove that they are remarkably exempt from it. It is 

 true that a wet day is comfortless and a bore simply because it is 

 wet, not because the rain is or is not heavy ; hence all that is 

 necessary is to place the town gauge high above the ground, make 

 no record of the number of wet days, publish, the annual rainfall 

 thus ascertained, and with it those of towns which have no tempt- 

 ation to this form of utilization. The rainfall will undoubtedly 

 stand in very favourable contrast with that of any of the other 

 towns, and the general public will readily conclude that the wet days 

 were correspondingly few. 



Seriously, however, our method of collecting rainfall data is 

 anything but satisfactory, and the figures must fail in the rigid 

 accuracy which science requires. 



In concluding this part of my paper, I venture to express the 

 hope that at no distant day all observers will employ gauges of the 

 same size and construction, which shall be tested before being- 

 located; that they shall all be at one uniform small height above 

 the surface ; that the ground on which they are placed shall be at 

 least approximately level, and quite unoccupied for some distance 

 from them ; that none of them shall be placed on buildings, since 

 these, especially when large, cannot but be thermal agents and 



affect the rainfall ; that, with the ex- 

 ception of a few very elevated stations, 

 the number of wet days shall be duly 

 recorded; and that, for ascertaining 

 the exact relation of rainfall to height 

 above the surface, a series of such 

 gauges shall, at least, at one station 

 in each county, be placed practically 

 in the same vertical line at uniform 

 successive distances, say of 10 feet. 



Without intending to express any 

 doubt respecting the accuracy of other 

 gauges, it may be stated that probably 

 none are to be preferred to the " five- 

 inch gauge " made by Mr. Casella, 

 under the auspices of the British 

 Association, and which, through the 

 kindness of the maker, is figured above. It consists of a Receiver, 

 a Reservoir, and a Metre. The last, of course, requires no descrip- 



— Jl 



