79 
of Shropshire and parts adjacent . 
On the 31st October, 1792, the depth was 5 feet ; on the 1st 
November the banks were overflowed ; and by the next day the 
water had fallen to 7 feet. 
In December, the water, generally speaking, stands higher than in 
the other months, the floods remain longer, and are also longer in 
subsiding. In those cases where the water has been remarkably low 
for a week or more successively, the river has at length, notwith- 
standing its rapidity, been frozen over. Of this phenomenon there 
are four records in the register before me namely, December 2d, 
1796, the depth of water being 1 foot 8 inches; on the l'5th of the 
same month the ice broke, and the water rose to 3 feet ; it continued 
nearly at the same height till the 22d, when the river again froze 
over, the depth of water being 2 feet 10 inches, and so continued 
till the 29th. 
On the 27th December, 1798, the depth of water being only 
2 feet, the river froze over and continued so till January 15th in the 
next year. Lastly, on the 21st December, 1799, the depth of water 
being 1 foot 7 inches, the river was frozen over and continued so 
till January 4th. 
The annual quantities of rain in the district from which the 
Severn derives its water, Would be a most desirable and indeed 
almost necessary element in many important deductions from the 
facts already mentioned : I believe that no such observations have 
ever been made in this part of the country. It is well known how- 
ever, that the mountainous Welsh part of this district suffers consi- 
derably in its agricultural produce from frequent and long continued 
rains; and from a register kept for six years, (from 1796 to 1801 
inclusive,) about eight miles south of Shrewsbury, the annual number 
of days in which rain fell is 191. The entire district may therefore, 
upon the whole, be called rainy. 
