1844.] On Bain Guages and Registry of Biver Freshes. 181 



continued from year to year, we may discover some premo- 

 nitory indie ations of these dreadful droughts, and learn in 

 some degree to avert the calamities that attend them ? and* 

 if there be but a chance of saving only one hundred lives by 

 means of a trifling degree of fore knowledge, surely, it is 

 worth while to bestow some labour and money in the endea- 

 vour to obtain it. 



So long as the weather is described merely as being very 

 hot, or the rains as late, unseasonable or scanty, we cannot ex- 

 pect much attention to be paid or much knowledge gained. 

 Every hot day seems one of the hottest we ever endured* 

 every heavy pour of rain, especially if we wish to go abroad 

 appears the veriest deluge which ever promised a ducking. 

 Probably in no case is our judgment so apt to be deceived 

 as in comparison of seasons, to estimate which we trust chief- 

 ly to the recollection of our past feelings. It would be very 

 different if we had more precise guides. Imagine, for ex- 

 ample, that in the year before the famine, our records 

 shewed that only 3 inches rain fell in November, and that 

 the July freshes rose to a height of 12 feet, and that in 

 1845 the freshes should rise only to 10 feet and the Novem- 

 ber rains amount to only 2 inches, should we not then begin 

 to anticipate mischief? The merchants would expect high 

 prices in the Districts menaced, grain would be exported to 

 them, and much of the evil of famine would be met by time- 

 ly supplies. 



But I have said enough on a subject which any of your 

 traders can illustrate and on which there can hardly be a 

 diversity of opinion. I will only add, with your permission 

 that until the duty is entrusted to more able hands, I shall be 

 glad to aid in condensing and arranging for publication any 

 papers that this notice may elicit and that I am, 



Dear Sirs, 



Yours very truly, 



S. Best?. 



t 



