504 
MR. A. W. PRESTON S METEOROLOGICAL NOTES. 
barometer. Only 0.64 of rain fell, and but one shower of snow ; 
and, with the exception of one day, the barometer remained above 
thirty inches from the 3rd to the 28th. 
March. 
This mouth entered with very foggy weather, giving place on 
the 1 1th day to a very winterly period lasting to the 22nd, even 
more severe than that of the previous March. On the 13th the 
thermometer fell to 19.4 degrees (a point but rarely recorded in 
March), and to 2 1 . 6 degrees the following day. Frequent snowstorms 
occurred, and for ten days the ground was covered with snow. 
The last week of the month was somewhat milder, with rain at 
times, and accompanied by rough north-westerly winds. The mean 
temperature of the month (37.8 degrees) was as much as 4g degrees 
helow the average. During the last fifty years so cold a March 
has only occurred three times, viz., in 1845, 1865, and 1883. 
April. 
April entered with a severe snowstorm, and was throughout one 
of the most ungenial and unpleasant spring months ever known. 
Although April, 1879, was nearly as cold, we have to go back as 
far as 1837 for an April with a lower mean temperature. 
Vegetation remained at a standstill almost throughout the mouth, 
night frosts being frequent, and snow showers occurring at times 
even to the 27th. On the 17th the thermometer fell to 25 degrees, 
a temperature in some years not recorded throughout the winter. 
Bitter north-east winds prevailed without any intermission through- 
out the second and third weeks, at times reaching the force of a 
gale, and for many days together the sky was completely obscured 
by heavy dark clouds. 
May. 
With tlie advent of May it Avas hoped tliat the cold of tlie 
preceding months Avould be compensated for by some genial 
weather ; but such hopes were doomed to di.sappointment ; for with 
the exception of the 8th, 9th, and 31st, the thermometer did not 
reach 60 degrees throughout the month, the Avind bleAV from the east 
and north-east on eighteen days, and the mean temperature of tlie 
