48 Mr James Straton on the Rain-Gauge. 



first arts of life, to the meteorologist, the agriculturist, the 

 engineer, the farmer, and the gardener — is so simple, and can 

 be produced at a price so trifling, that it may find a place in 

 the garden-plot of every respectable cottager, as well as in 

 the lawn of the landed proprietor. The extended use of the 

 rain-gauge thus permitted, may form a powerful means of 

 leading the advancing intelligence and activity of the rural 

 population to habits of correct observation, scientific rea- 

 soning, and more rational views of weather and climate, than 

 the prognostications contained in the pages of "Belfast Al- 

 manacs," and publications of similar " respectability ." 



One of the most important conclusions resulting from the 

 foregoing facts, — a conclusion as painful as it is important, — 

 is, that all the data yet collected, all the rain -registers of this 

 and other countries, are vitiated to some unknown extent in 

 consequence of the imperfections of the instruments used. 

 The larger gauge, of which the registration is given in com- 

 parison with the smaller one, page 37, is superior in size and 

 form of receiver (elliptical, 6 J inches wide by 5 J deep) to most 

 of those which I have seen in use. Nevertheless, it will be 

 observed that the record of the smaller during the six months 

 preceding this date is fully six inches more than that of the 

 larger gauge ; being less and in error nearly a fourth part of 

 the annual average depth of rain on the spot. It becomes ne- 

 cessary, therefore, in order to give scientific value to the past 

 labours of meteorologists in this department of their work, 

 to plant more efficient instruments beside those hitherto used, 

 and by years of comparison discover the probable amount of 

 error in recorded observations. Registers of the rain fallen 

 have, for example, been kept here during the past thirty years, 

 and these give twenty- six inches as the yearly average depth 

 of water, but my investigations shew that, though the records 

 for the summer months may be near the truth, they are not 

 so during the heavy rains and snow with strong wind in the 

 winter months. The amount of error is so great that the 

 yearly average must be at least thirty instead of twenty- 

 six inches depth of rain. 



3 Kingsland Place, George Street, Aberdeen, 

 1st March 1853. 



