418 
Recent  British  Weather. 
table  several  stations  where  the  ratios  are  much  higher,  four 
exceeding  130,  and  at  these  stations  the  last  eight  years  have 
had  the  average  rainfall  of  nearly  10J  years.  No  wonder  that 
there  have  been  Bills  brought  before  Parliament  for  the  regula- 
tion of  floods. 
As  regards  the  localities  which  have  suffered  most,  it  will  be 
found,  by  plotting  these  values  on  a map,  that  they  are  generally 
higher  in  the  Midland  and  Western  Counties  of  England  than 
anywhere  else.  In  Cheshire  there  has  scarcely  been  any  excess, 
and  in  the  North  of  Lancashire,  in  Cumberland,  and  in  West- 
moreland there  has  been  a marked  deficiency.  This  deficiency 
also  prevailed,  but  only  slightly,  along  the  West  of  Scotland  ; 
but  I should  be  extremely  glad  of  additional  records  from  that 
district.  In  the  East  of  Scotland  and  in  Ireland  there  has  been 
a slight  excess. 
Perhaps  there  are  few  localities  whence  stronger  evidence 
of  the  wetness  of  recent  years  could  be  produced  than  from 
the  station  at  Saul  Lodge  on  the  Gloucestershire  shore  of 
the  Severn.  Mr.  Clegram,  C.E.,  thus  epitomizes  some  of  the 
facts. 
“The  total  rainfall  of  1882,  40‘40  in.,  is  the  greatest  for 
25  years,  exceeding  even  1872  by  L44  in. 
“ There  is  no  record  of  any  approach  to  so  continuous  a wet 
period  as  the  last  six  months  of  1882,  when  25'27  in.  fell,  which 
is  0-85  in.  more  than  the  average  yearly  fall  of  the  13  years, 
1858-70. 
“ The  rainfall  has  been  recorded  here  for  25  years,  the 
average  of  the  whole  period  is  28-03  in.  ; the  first  13  years 
were  3'61  in.  below,  and  the  last  12  years  3-92  in.  above  that 
average,  giving  a difference  of  7'53  in.  between  the  two 
periods.” 
In  corroboration  of  the  above,  the  figures  from  Clifton  may 
be  quoted. 
“ The  total  rainfall  of  1882,  48’28  in.,  is  the  greatest  for 
30  years. 
“ The  rainfall  has  been  recorded  here  for  30  years,  the 
average  of  the  whole  period  is  34’32  in.  ; the  average  of  the  last 
11  years  has  been  4 85  in.  in  excess.” 
Hence  we  arrive  at  two  broad  results  : — 
I.  That  recent  years  have  been  characterised  by  low  summer 
temperatures. 
II.  That,  concurrently  with  the  above,  the  rainfall  has  been 
greatly  in  excess,  especially  in  the  Central  and  Western  Counties 
of  England. 
