18 
On  the  Climate  of  the  British  Islands 
about  1500  feet  on  the  Dartmoor  Hills,  the  yearly  amount  rises 
from  44  to  70  inches. 
At  Kinfauns  Castle,  Scotland,  140  feet  high,  25  inches  falls 
annually ; on  an  adjoining  hill,  600  feet  above  the  sea,  the  quan- 
tity deposited  is  41  inches. 
44.  The  number  of  days  on  which  rain  falls  during  the  year  is 
greater  on  the  western  than  on  the  eastern  coast,  but  the  difference 
is  not  such  as  the  relative  quantity  of  rain  would  lead  us  to  expect. 
The  fact  appears  to  be  that  the  rain-clouds  brought  by  the  south- 
west winds,  though  partially  drained  by  the  western  hills,  yet 
pervade  every  part  of  England,  and  deposit  much  of  the  residue 
of  their  moisture  on  the  eastern  lands. 
If  as  much  rain  fell  on  the  heavy  clay  lands  of  England  as  on 
the  friable  soils  of  the  western  hills,  the  most  productive  wheat 
soils  would  be  comparatively  barren  ; but  these  hills  form  a 
natural  system  of  atmospheric  drainage,  drawing  from  the  clouds 
that  superfluous  moisture  which  would  be  injurious  to  the  heavy 
land.  The  annual  quantity  of  rain  is  however  almost  as  widely 
distributed  through  the  year  on  the  eastern  as  on  the  western 
coast.  This  will  appear  from  the  following  table.  The  greatest 
number  of  rainy  days  in  the  year  no  doubt  occur  in  the  south- 
west of  Ireland,  but  I have  not  been  able  to  obtain  any  recorded 
facts  from  thence  on  this  point  : — 
Table  VII. — Showing  the  Number  of  Days  in  the  Year  on  which  Rain  fell 
at  the  places  mentioned : — 
Western  Coast. 
Whitehaven 175 
Liverpool  .....  178 
Stoneyhurst  College  . . 195 
Cumberland  Lake  District  . 210 
Dublin  ......  200 
Pool  Cottage,  Hereford  . . 138 
Exeter  (mean  of  9 years)  . 175 
Truro  (mean  of  10  years)  . 177 
llelston 183 
Eastern  Coast. 
Durham 148 
York 181 
Derby 190 
Saffron  Walden  . . . . 184 
Aylesbury 154 
London,  neighbourhood  of  . 178* 
On  the  Cause  of  the  peculiar  Character  of  the  Climate  of  the 
British  Isles. 
45.  So  far  as  this  investigation  has  proceeded,  it  shows  that  the 
climate  of  the  British  Islands  is  of  a peculiar  and  anomalous 
character.  The  remarkable  mildness  of  winter  for  the  latitude, 
with  the  strange  distribution  of  heat  at  that  season — a more  than 
tropical  quantity  of  rain  in  some  parts,  with  a change  from  west  to 
east  in  the  relative  amount  apportioned  to  the  different  seasons — 
all  tend  to  show  that  the  primary  constituents  of  climate  are 
* Mean  of  20  years  by  Howard. 
