98 



The Naturalist. 



total, and his average for the last ten years has been 31 '30 inches. 



The selected returns published monthly in the " Meteorological 

 Magazine" indicate that, when Mr. Symons presents us with his 

 "British Rainfall for 1875/' we may expect to find that the excess 

 in the rainfall of this year of floods has taken place mostly in the 

 midland and south-western counties of South Britain, and that at 

 some of the wettest stations (Borrowdale and Portree, for instance) 

 the weather has even been considerably drier than usual. 



On six days during the year the rainfall has exceeded an inch. 

 The heaviest day's rain was on July 20th — 1*70 inches; and the 

 heaviest shower fell between midnight July 17 and 8 o'clock July 18, 

 when the gauge showed 1-30 inches as the result of the night's fall. 

 2*38 inches fell between the afternoon of October 18th and the nooii 

 of the 20th. Although 1*70 inches is a heavy day's fall, and is not 

 often exceeded in this district, it sinks into insignificance when 

 compared with the returns for July 20 from Newport, (Mon.) of 5*33, 

 and Tintern Abbey .5*31 inches. 



In conclusion, I subjoin a table showing the direction of the wind 

 during the year. The most striking point about this is the great 

 excess of east and north-east winds, which prevailed for 138 days, 

 against an average of 106. In«general terms it may be said that we 

 have had during the year a month too much east wind and a month 

 too little west. As often happens here, the heaviest rains ha^'e come 

 with easterly winds ; in each of the six instances already referred to, 

 when the rainfall exceeded an inch, the wind was from the east. 



Direction of the Wind in 1875. 



Direction. 



■ 



Days. 



Average days 

 per annum, 

 1866-75. 



N 



14 



13-5 



N.E 



46 



41-0 



E 



92 



65-1 



• S.E. ... 



22 



21-9 



S 



15 



13-1 



s.w. ... 



43 



65-7 



w 



114 



118-8 



N.W. ... 



19 



26-1 



Dcdton, 18th Jan., 1876. 



