apprehension of the sea water getting into it, as it can be 
placed on the bridge, or on the top of the deck house, quite 
free from spray, as is found in practice. 
Abstract questions respecting the difficulties of correctly 
ascertaining the rainfall at sea by reason of winds, course of 
vessels, motion of ship, &c., may only be met by the answer 
that all rain-gauges at sea must be placed under like con- 
dition everywhere and at any time on board ship. 
Some general idea of rain on the ocean could only be 
gathered after at least 10 years’ continuous observations, as 
the items of interest are few and far between, sometimes 
many degrees of latitude and longitude apart. 
It is found there is much less rain falling on the ocean 
than is generally supposed, and that the quantity of fine 
weather much exceeds that of stormy weather or wet 
weather in long voyages. 
The greatest quantity of rain falls along the equatorial 
regions, the next in the tropical regions, while the intra 
and extra tropical regions are unexpectedly much drier than 
supposed. It will also be found there is much less rain 
falling at sea than on land, which is naturally as it should 
be, the warm ocean thus becoming the generator of the 
vapours that finally get condensed on the cold mountains of 
the land and descend to moisten the thirsty plains below. 
Previous observations of rainfall at sea have been only 
taken by counting wet days, hours, and minutes, as may be 
seen in the meteorological returns of the Novara round the 
world in 1857-59. 
The following tables are statistical summaries of the 
results of the observations taken by rain gauges on board 
ship at sea for a period of about 5 years over the Atlantic, 
Indian, Chinese, and Australian seas, but not on the 
Pacific : — 
