Literature, 589 
the fact is that the consideration of the face of the sky as 
the appearance of the clouds, and also barometric changes 
are great aids in enabling us to determine the approach of 
bad weather. He is right so far as he goes, but he does 
not go far enough. Again, when treating of “the inequality 
of the distribution of rain,’ (he here refers to the effects of 
an ordinary shower, not to the varying amount of the rain- 
fall in different countries, as one would gather from the 
language), he is quite right when he tells the public that a 
rain-gauge placed on the ground will catch more rain than 
will one at a higher level, and he is accurate in his state- 
ment that rain-drops augment as they nearthe earth. He 
then makes this one circumstance the sole cause of that 
effect, and suppresses other circumstances that go to swell 
the aggregate result—passing by the theory of Mr. Sevons, 
that currents of air which play around the gauge placed 
on the ground may increase the quantity, or the likelihood 
that rain falling from a height may rebound into a vessel 
placed to receive it. This may appear to be trivial, but it 
is better to glance at all possible concomitants that may 
tend to bring about a certain result than to suppress them. 
Moreover not a word is said respecting the course of the 
rain becoming horizontal as it approaches the earth, which 
alteration in direction would explain the increased size of 
the rain-drops, and render them more likely to fall into the 
gauge, and lessen the probability of their being carried 
away by currents of air. 
An allusion is made to a clumsy contrivance to gauge 
the depth of rain after a shower, and a pail and a two-foot 
rule are alluded to as a means for attaining the end, al 
though we may well ask, what on earth do we want a two- 
foot rule for, when, by the author’s own showing, the aver- 
age rain-fall at Greenwich is about 25 inches per annum— 
and in this he is under the mark. 
In our opinion, a very poor article has been written on 
an extremely interesting subject—one that would allowa 
man who knew his text to give a great amount of sterling 
information in a readable form, which certainly does not 
hold good in the article we are noticing, for we defy the 
ordinary types of the classes to which the magazine is ad- 
dressed to understand the latter half of the article in ques- 
tion. It is about the dryest and most tedious piece of com- 
position it has been our ill-fortune to read for many a day. 
Amongst other points calculated to interest, the difference 
in the rain-fall in different parts of the globe might have 
been touched upon. Persons who have not travelled or 
