14 
On  the  Climate  of  the  British  Islands 
33.  This  table  shows,  that  on  the  cultivated  soil  of  the  south- 
west of  England  about  44  inches  of  rain  fall  annually.  On  the 
great  eastern  plain  of  England — having  Greenwich  and  Chiswick 
on  the  south,  and  Boston  on  the  north,  at  which  places  careful 
observations  have  been  made — 24  inches  are  the  yearly  quantity. 
Along  the  fertile  lowlands  of  the  eastern  coast  of  England  and 
Scotland,  as  far  as  Inverness,  with  some  minor  variations,  the 
same  amount  is  received  by  the  soil.  On  the  western  coast,  the 
grauwacke  hills  of  the  south  of  Scotland,  Cumberland,  Wales, 
and  Cornwall,  attract  and  condense  the  clouds  passing  from  the 
Atlantic,  and  so  receive  the  largest  quantity.  Much  soil  on  this 
formation  is  of  a friable  nature,  and  readily  allows  the  water  to 
percolate  through  it ; and  if  the  beds  of  slate  lie  on  their  edge, 
the  water  rapidly  passes  into  the  fissures  of  the  rock.  But  where 
the  stratification  is  horizontal,  the  thin  soil  becomes  water-sodden 
and  weak. 
Generally  the  western  hills  and  the  adjoining  lowlands  have 
more  open  soils  than  the  midland  districts,  and  require  more 
moisture.  There  is  an  old  adage  that  “ Cornwall  will  take  a 
shower  every  day  of  the  week,  and  two  on  the  Sunday.”  These 
hills  also  form  a sort  of  natural  drainage,  drawing  off  from  the 
clouds  that  excess  of  water  which  would  be  injurious  to  the  stiff 
wheat  soils  of  the  midland  counties. 
The  general  elevation  of  the  rain-clouds  appears  to  be  from 
500  to  2000  feet.  The  detached  mountain  bosses  of  Ireland  and 
the  lowlands  near  are  the  wettest  parts  of  the  country.  The 
central  plain  not  rising  higher  than  200  feet,  permits  these  clouds 
to  pass  onward  with  a casual,  yet  frequent  tribute,  and  it  is  not 
till  they  are  intercepted  by  the  Cumberland  mountains  that  the 
abundance  of  their  contents  is  discharged  in  torrents  of  rain.  The 
hills  of  the  Pennine  chain  shelter  and  protect  the  vale  of  York 
from  these  libations  of  nature. 
34.  The  distribution  of  the  annual  quantity  of  rain  through  the 
different,  months  has  an  important  influence  on  seed-time,  the 
ripening  and  harvesting  of  corn,  &c.  It  is  given  in  Table  V. 
35.  An  examination  of  this  table  shows  that  the  months  of 
spring  form  the  dryest  season  of  the  year.  In  the  midland  and 
eastern  districts  March  is  a dry  month;  in  the  south-west  coun- 
ties April  has  the  least  amount  of  rain ; and  in  the  lake  district,  of 
Cumberland  May  and  February  are  the  dryest  months.  Here  is 
a general  adaptation  of  nature  to  the  requirements  of  seed-time, 
and  the  observing  husbandman,  who  works  his  land  at  a proper 
season,  will  rarely  fail  of  getting  it  into  a good  state  of  tilth  for 
his  spring  crops.  The  month  of  July  has  nearly  its  full  share 
■ — a twelfth  part  of  the  whole;  and  August  is  still  wetter;  so 
that  during  the  ripening  of  corn,  and  at  harvest,  a larger  quan- 
