Recent  British  Weather. 
411 
regarded  as  a most  useful  servant,  but  one  that  requires  to  be 
kept  well  under  control  ; and  the  remedy  required  for  dealing 
with  the  present  disastrous  condition  of  our  rivers,  by  which  so 
much  flooding  and  loss  are  occasioned,  is  that  these  should  he 
placed  under  a proper  system  of  management,  with  a repre- 
sentative body  responsible  for  their  care  and  maintenance  in 
efficient  order  ; and  that,  while  the  tributary  streams  may  be  left 
to  be  dealt  with  under  the  machinery  provided  by  the  existing 
law,  legislation  is  required  for  the  main  streams,  which  must  be 
dealt  with  from  their  source  to  their  outfall  by  one  uniform 
and  adequate  system. 
XIX. — Recent  British  Weather.  By  G.  J.  Symons,  F.R.S. 
Just  as  in  the  million-peopled  capital  of  the  British  Empire 
one  never  sees  two  faces  precisely  alike,  though  all  are  composed 
of  the  same  features,  so  no  two  seasons  are  alike,  though  the 
same  general  characteristics  are  to  be  found  in  all. 
Hence  arises  the  extreme  difficulty  of  rigorously  accurate  com- 
parison between  different  seasons,  when  based  only  upon  the 
averages  of  observations  during  long  or  short  periods.  And 
yet  these  are  the  best  guide,  for  mere  general  impressions  are 
useless,  except  in  years  of  altogether  exceptional  weather  such 
as  1860,  or  the  autumn  of  1852.  Records  of  weather  made 
without  reference  to  instruments,  depend  partly  on  the  physical 
and  social  status  of  the  man  who  makes  them.  A man  in  the 
prime  of  life,  in  vigorous  health,  and  with  a comfortable  balance 
at  his  banker’s,  will  give  a very  different  report  upon  a season 
to  that  which  would  be  given  by  perhaps  his  nearest  neighbour, 
who  might  be  weighed  down  by  age,  sickness,  or  poverty.  Nor 
can  reliance  be  placed  upon  recollections  of  bygone  seasons, 
except  (as  before  observed)  in  very  marked  cases.  Certain  facts 
as  to  the  extraordinary  lateness  of  the  harvest  in  one  year,  or 
the  wonderful  yield  of  another,  remain  firmly  impressed  upon 
the  memory  : but  less  marked  seasons  succeed  one  another  so 
rapidly,  that  their  features  are  soon  blurred  and  forgotten. 
I therefore  propose  in  this  article  to  base  my  remarks 
almost  entirely  upon  actual  instrumental  records,  although,  as 
I have  already  pointed  out,  the  general  result  of  a season  is 
based  upon  so  many  separate  conditions  that  it  is  impossible  to 
individualize  them.  It  may  be  well  to  give  a specimen  of  the 
sort  of  difficulty  to  which  I refer.  There  may  be  two  Augusts, 
with  practically  identical  mean  temperature  and  total  rainfall  ; 
one  may  be  a month  of  equable  temperature,  and  constant 
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