20 J. .F Miller, Esq., on the 



Remarks. 



The past year is distinguished by several marked peculiarities and 

 anomalous characteristics, of which the most prominent are, — the 

 very large amount of rain, and its very unequal distribution over the 

 different seasons, — the enormous and unprecedented fall in the two 

 first and two last months, and the protracted drought of ten weeks 

 in the spring, — the longest, though not the most severe, which has 

 occurred within the memory of the existing generation, in the North- 

 ern Counties. The year is further remarkable for its high tempera- 

 ture, the large amount of surface evaporation, the great heat of July 

 and August (especially of July, the mean temperature of which ex- 

 ceeded that of any other month on record) — the great quantity of 

 free electricity in the air in these months, as manifested by the un- 

 usual number and almost tropical severity of the thunder storms, — 

 for the small number of frosty nights and the entire absence of snow, 

 — and, lastly, for the violent gales of wind which prevailed during 

 the last week in December, particularly on the morning of Christ- 

 mas day, when the tempest or hurricane exceeded in violence any 

 storm which has visited the north of England since the memorable 

 7th of January 1839. 



The abnormal conditions of climate presented by the year 1852, 

 are so numerous and varied, that they seem worthy of something 

 more than a mere passing notice. I therefore proceed to discuss 

 these irregularities in the order in which they have just been enu- 

 merated. As regards the Lake District generally, the year 1852 

 exhibits by much the largest quantity of rain which has been re- 

 corded in any annual period since the experiments were commenced 

 in 1844, though the falls at Wastdale Head and Seathwaite were 

 exceeded in 1848, by 5*74 and 4 15 inches, respectively. At the 

 coast, the depth in 1852 was exceeded in only three of the last 

 twenty years, — viz., in 1835, 1836, and 1841, in which the at- 

 mospheric precipitation was 54*13, 5897, and 55*97 inches, re- 

 spectively.* It may be observed, that the fall of rain in 1852 has 

 been relatively much greater in the Westmoreland than in the Cum- 

 berland portion of the Lake District. At Troutbeck, the depth ex- 

 ceeds the average of the eight preceding years by more than one 

 half; at Kendal, by nearly one-half; and, at Ambleside, by more 



* The most extraordinary relative fall of rain in England, in 1852, occurred 

 at North Shields, — 58'21 inches, the average being only 20-37 inches. In 8 

 months previous to June 1852, the total quantity of rain measured was 794 

 inches ; and in the last 7 months of the year, the fall was 52-41 inches ; — viz., 

 in June, 752 inches, in July, 571 inches, in August, 6 - 92 inches, in September, 

 8-65 inches, in October, 782 inches, in November, 9*91 inches, and in Decem- 

 ber, 5-88 inches. 



