40 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
taken. But, whatever the method of observation may be now, 
it can scarcely be disputed that in former times there was a 
margin for improvement ; so considerable, in fact, that it is diffi- 
cult to understand how to accept the present arrangements as 
approximately correct, and yet regard the previous observations 
as having any claim to scientific accuracy. Everyone can under- 
stand how, when it was left to the discretion and taste of amateur 
meteorologists to employ screens of any shape and position they 
pleased, the vagaries and opinions of the different workers should 
have led to an endless variety of form and exposure. It can, 
therefore, occasion no surprise to read in one of the publications 
emanating from the Meteorological Office that at the time of 
the first inspection of stations it was found that thermometers 
were placed in some cases under station roofs ; that at one place 
the wet bulb had never seen water for about three weeks, while 
in another it had been completely immersed in that element for 
about the same period. All these sources of difference having 
been eliminated, and uniformity of exposure and time having 
been obtained, it must be evident that these observations may 
be regarded not only as the latest but most correct data to be 
obtained of the temperature of the different parts of these 
Islands. 
The best and plainest method of displaying quickly and 
clearly the general distribution of mean temperature over our 
Islands is to plot the observations on charts, and the following 
figures give the isotherms for each of the twelve months. 
January . — The influence of the waters of the ocean, and more 
particularly those of the Atlantic, in modifying climate, has been 
repeatedly pointed out, and this influence is clearly shown in 
the January chart. The warmest station in the British Isles in 
this month is Scilly (48°) ; for not only is it the most southern 
point of our coasts, but it is surrounded on all sides by the 
heat-bearing waters. Next in order after the Scilly Islands 
come Valentia, on the south-western promontory of Ireland, and 
Plymouth (both 46°), both stations well exposed to the warm 
south-west winds and the open sea. From this warm south- 
western region temperature gradually decreases in a north- 
easterly direction, and reaches its lowest point (39°) on the coasts 
of the Moray Firth. Although this is actually the coldest part 
of the kingdom, it will be noticed that the temperature of the 
whole of the east coast of England is very little more genial ; 
the isotherms, after having been carried well to the northward on 
our western coasts by the influence of the warm Atlantic, turn 
almost at right angles in a southerly direction till they come to 
a region which is again, though in a more modified degree,, 
heated by the waters of the ocean, viz. the shores of the English 
Channel, when they again take a more easterly course. 
