27 ie G'reat Drought of 1898 . 
851 
United Kingdom. Taking the four months as a whole, the inquiry 
showed that over the northern parts of England, and also in the 
south and east of Ireland, there was, generally speaking, between 
40 and 50 per cent, of the possible amount. In nearly all the more 
southern parts of England and Wales the percentage was above 50, 
the only exceptions being Greenwich and Margate ; at the former 
station there was only 44 per cent., and at the latter 48 per cent. 
On the south and south-west coasts of England the values ranged 
between 50 and 60, the latter figure being reached at Falmouth. 
This very high percentage was, however, considerably exceeded in the 
Channel Islands, the value both at G uernsey and Jersey being no less 
than 67 per cent. To grasp the full significance of these facts it must 
be borne in mind that if the sun shines during a whole month for more 
than half the time it is above the horizon, the record is considered 
a remarkably good one, a percentage of 60 or more for such a period 
being very unusual in these islands. During the period under dis- 
cussion there was at a large number of stations on our south and 
south-west coasts a percentage very little under 60 for a period ex- 
tending over four months, while in the Channel Islands the sun 
actually shone during this lengthy interval for more than two-thirds 
of the time it was above the horizon. A careful examination of the 
records since the year 1881 shows no such spell of fine weather, the 
only approach to it being in the splendid summer of 1887, when 
the percentage at Jersey for the three months, June, July, and 
August was over 60. The value, however, for that period was 
lower than it was this year, and if, to make the comparison com- 
plete, we add as a fourth month either May or September to the 1887 
record, we get a very much smaller percentage than that given in 
the period under discussioti. As regards the daily proportion of 
sunshine, it appears that during the four months there were more 
than 7 hours per day in the Midland counties, about 7| hours in 
England east, and between 8 and 8i hours on our south and south- 
west coasts, while in the Channel Islands the daily proportion for 
the entire period was no less than 9^ hours. The smallest number 
of sunless days in the four months was two at Southampton, Tor- 
quay, and Guernsey, and three at Rothamsted, Dublin, and Jersey, 
but many other stations over the southern parts of the kingdom 
reported only four or five such occasions. In the Channel Islands, 
and also at Torquay and Plymouth, there was not one sunless day 
during the whole of April, May, and June. 
The particulars relating to the rainfall of the four months were 
considered under two heads, the first relating to the distribution of 
the rain which actually occurred, and the second giving interesting 
data respecting the periods in which it was altogether wanting, or 
was too scanty in amount to be of any real service. With regard 
to the first of these questions, it appeared that over a very considerable 
portion of England there was a deficiency in each of the months. In 
March the total amount was less than one- quarter of the average in 
most of the English districts as well as in the south of Ireland. 
Over a large part of our eastern, central, and southern counties there 
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