(313) 



XIV. — On the Average Quantity of Rain in Carlisle and the Neighbourhood. 

 By Thomas Barnes, M.D., F.RS.E. 



(Read 17th April 1870.) 



In the year 1827, I communicated to the Royal Society of Edinburgh some 

 meteorological journals, kept at Carlisle by the late Mr Pitt, extending over a 

 period of twenty-four years, viz., from 1801 to 1824 inclusive. An abstract of 

 these journals, with explanatory remarks and tabular results, were drawn up 

 by me, and read before the Society, and were afterwards published in their 

 Transactions. I now beg to offer some remarks to the Society on journals 

 kept by Dr Carlyle, in the city of Carlisle, from 1757 to 1783 inclusive, by the 

 Eev. Jos. Golding at Aikbank, near Wigton, Cumberland, fourteen miles west 

 of Carlisle, from 1792 to 1810 inclusive, and by myself at Bunkers Hill, two 

 and a half miles west of Carlisle, which is situate 184 feet above the sea level, 

 according to the late Ordnance Survey, from 1852 to 1870 inclusive. I shall 

 confine my remarks to the quantity of rain that fell during the several periods 

 of our journals. The accompanying tables show the quantity of each month and 

 year included in these periods. I regret much that I am not able to give a 

 description of the instruments used by Dr Carlyle and Mr Golding ; but as 

 they both were gentlemen of considerable ability and of liberal education, and 

 devoted much time and attention to meteorology, there is no reason to doubt 

 either the quality of their instruments or the correctness of their observations. 

 Dr Carlyle's rain-gauge was placed in his garden, near the head of Abbey 

 Street, and is about the same height as the ground on which the Cathedral 

 stands, eighty-two feet above the level of the sea. My own rain-gauge consists 

 of a copper funnel, twelve inches in diameter at the top, and is inserted into a 

 strong tinned iron vessel, placed in a box on my garden wall, the height of the 

 funnel being six feet above ground. It is examined from time to time, and 

 particularly after a fall of rain. The water is measured by means of a glass 

 tube of half an inch diameter, with an attached scale of inches and tenths. By 

 this means, the rain that falls on a circular area of twelve inches diameter is 

 collected on an area of half an inch diameter, so that inches and tenths in the 

 tube correspond to g-^-g- and 5-7^ of an inch of rain on the surface of the gauge. 

 To prevent waste by evaporation, the communication between the funnel and 

 the receiver is very narrow; and to prevent the rain that falls within the gauge 

 from splashing over, the upper edge or rim of the funnel is turned upwards 

 from the inclined direction of the under part, so as to stand vertically, and the 



VOL. XXVI. PART II. 4 M 



