52 
Oil the Temperature of the Sea, and its Iiijluence 
structive storms from tlie south-east. The north wind which 
preceded each, and brought the cold, gradually passed to the 
south-east, and when it reached that point it was intensified into 
a hurricane of extreme violence. In Torbav alone, in 18GG, 
forty vessels were wrecked by a similar gale, and in the storms 
of 1867 the damage must have been far greater on the south- 
western coast. 
We may infer — 
That cold, especially when accompanied by snow and 
continued frost, is, in the south-west of England, a 
storm-breeder. 
That after severe cold of many days' standing in winter, 
heavy gales may bo expected ; and when at such a 
time northerly winds shift to east and south-east a 
storm is near. 
The strong winds, by drifting the snow, were destructive to 
many flocks of sheep in the western counties ; and the young 
wheat was much injured on exposed ground by the protecting 
covering of snow being swept away by the wind. 
TFet Julys. — The harvest months of July and August are in 
this country a time of anxiety to the farmer. He may previously 
have expended skilful labour and money to raise a vigorous 
plant : he can do no more, and now trusts to the weather to 
crown his labour by perfecting the grain; but a cold June 
and a wet July are sadly disappointing to his hopes, and the 
wheat-crop, in particular, suffers from this defect of heat and 
excess of rain. These harvest months are very variable as to 
winds, temperature, and rain, and corresponding effects are pro- 
duced on the crops. The south-west wind is at this season? 
three times as prevalent in some years as in others. The mean 
temperature has ranged at Penarth from 68"6° in 1859, to 
60'1° in 1860 : the former year giving an early and abundant 
harvest, and the latter a scanty crop gathered amidst the 
wet weather of August and extended throughout September. 
Thus a difference of 8^ of temperature in July made a dif- 
ference of full six weeks in the ripening of the corn ; and my 
rain-gauge has measured three times as much rain in one July 
as in another. 
The cause of the wet character of July must be traced to the 
south-west wind, which reaches the maximum of prevalence in 
this month, and its variable weather to the inconstancy of the 
winds. 
The south-west wind at this season sweeps the abundant 
vapour from the surface of the sea, and arrives, laden with 
moisture, on our western shores at a temperature of 58° to 60°, — 
