350 
The Spring Drought of 1893. 
I have italicised the words spring droughts because I find 
that there is a tendency to confuse the effects of drought and of 
high temperature. Droughts differ in their effects according 
to the weather which has preceded them, and according to 
the temperature during their continuance, and the effects, of 
course, differ enormously, according to the stage at which vegeta- 
tion has arrived. 
LONDON 
» CobhaJn. 
For these reasons I select, for special notice, only droughts, 
of sixty days or upwards, which have begun in February or 
March and finished in April, May or June. That the spring is 
the usual period for such droughts is strikingly proved by the 
fact that this limitation excludes only two out of the eight long 
partial droughts of the present century. 
1817. 
This partial drought began early in March, and lasted rather 
over two months. 
Sunbury . — Partial drought lasted from March 8 to May 13, 
or 67 days, with a total rainfall of '63 inch ; and it included 
two absolute droughts (1) March 9 to 23, or 15 days, and (2) 
March 27 to April 29, or 34 days. 
Greenwich . — Partial drought lasted from March 9 to May 8, 
or 61 days, with a total rainfall of 0 - 38 inch, and included an 
absolute drought of 15 days from March 10 to March 24. 
1840. 
A longer partial drought than that of 1893, but in other 
respects much resembling it. I have details from three 
stations : — 
Greenivicli . — Partial drought from February 7 to May 8, or 
