134 RAINFALL AT SAUK, HERM AND ALDERNEY. 



year (1909) was again a dry one (the 5th in succession), it is 

 reasonable to suppose that the twelvemonth as a whole was 

 also dry in the smaller islands, although, as already stated, 

 much less so than in 1908. But if averages are as yet out of 

 the question, one thing seems pretty clearly established as a 

 result of the four years' observations, viz., that Sark is a 

 decidedly drier place than Alderney, while as regards Herm 

 the available material seems to point to its occupying an 

 intermediate position. Guernsey, there is no doubt, heads 

 the list as the wettest island of the group. 



And here, in connection with the rainfall shortage of 

 the last few years and the probable cause of it, I should 

 like to quote from a letter of Dr. H. R. Mill, the Chief 

 of the British Rainfall Organization, to Nature of October 

 28th, 1909. Writing on "Drought in South- West Ireland," 

 he says : — " It is frequently found that parts of the country 

 often quite narrow strips, show a marked deficiency of rainfall 

 for several successive years, and afterwards revert to an 

 average condition or show an excess. The most probable 

 explanation seems to be a change, perhaps a slight one, in 

 the prevailing tracks of the centres of barometric minima, 

 but I have not found data in a form suitable for testing 

 the truth of the suggestion." It will be extremely interesting 

 to hear of corroborative evidence in support of Dr. Mill's 

 suggestion for we know that, quite apart from other people's 

 experience, our own rainfall has given anxiety and been the 

 subject of considerable comment from the water supply point 

 of view in recent years. 



That our springs are entirely dependent for their supply 

 upon the rainfall I for one do not doubt — indeed I am in the 

 possession of evidence very much on the side of this theory. 

 Since the autumn of 1901 I have taken regular measurements 

 of the depth of water in our well at Les Blanches, and a 

 comparison of the figures with the rainfall totals shows quite 

 clearly, for instance, that the very low springs of 1902 and 

 1909 followed, in each case, a remarkably dry year. These 

 two unusually dry years, viz., 1901 and 1908, are by a long 

 way the driest at St. Martin's of the period 1894-1909, and, 

 beginning with 1902, the spring in that year and in 1909 

 averaged much lower than in any of the six intervening years 

 of much bigger rainfall. And as an illustration of a wet 

 twelvemonth being followed by abundance of water in the 

 well I can instance the years 1903 and 1904. The rainfall of 

 1903 is the biggest at Les Blanches of the last 16 years, and 

 in 1904 the springs literally overflowed their banks. At 



