632 
MR. J. F. MILLER ON THE METEOROLOGY OF THE LAKE 
At Whitehaven, the average annual fall from 1844 to 1850 inclusive, is 43’543 
inches; but in the eleven years preceding 1844, the average is 48’53 inches; and 
the average of the last eighteen years, from 1833 to 1850 inclusive, is 46’58 inches. 
And if we analyse the period of seven years comprehended between 1844 and 
1850, we find that only three of those years have exceeded the average; while of 
the remaining four, one year is characterized by drought, and the other three by 
unusual dryness. Even in the year 1848, when 161 inches fell at Seathwaite, the 
depth at Whitehaven was only 47'34 inches, or fths of an inch above the average of 
eighteen years ; whilst in 1835, the fall was 54*13 inches ; in 1836, 58*97 inches ; and 
in 1841, 55*97 inches. 
It is not pretended that the gradation in quantity between Seathwaite and White- 
haven in any particular year will be the same in other single years, or that the 
differential mean of one term of years will correspond precisely with that of other 
terms of equal length, although I conceive that the proportion found to obtain for a 
group of ten consecutive years, will never be very widely departed from in future 
decennial periods ; but we may, at least, fairly assume that a wet or a dry season at 
either station will bear a similar character at the other; and sufficient evidence has 
been adduced to show that the mean annual fall of rain in the Lake District has yet 
to be determined, by the incorporation of a future term of wet years with the com- 
paratively dry period already on record. And this remark applies with still greater 
force to the maximum fall, as, judging from the records kept at the coast during 
eighteen years, no one of the last seven, during which the Lake District gauges have 
been in action, has any pretension to a character for excessive wetness. 
Hence, the maximum annual depth in the mountain district of Cumberland may 
far exceed the computed fall of 211 inches at the Stye in 1848, enormous and almost 
incredible as is the quantity for a climate situated in the heart of the temperate zone. 
I may observe that the fall of rain at the coast in one year is rigidly comparable 
with any other year ; the gauge having been in the same spot, or at least within a 
few feet of it, from the year 1832 up to the present time. Moreover, the same gauge 
and the same glass metre (graduated to the n^th part of an inch) have been used 
from the first; and the rain has been read off daily throughout the period. 
In my paper printed in the Philosophical Transactions for 1848 (Part II.), allusion 
was made to the difference in the receipts of rain gauges within 100 yards of each 
other, when placed near the head of a valley. A still more remarkable instance is 
presented in the past year, but in this case the gauge is considerably elevated above 
the valley. On the 31st of August 1849, the gauge on Seatollar Common, 1338 feet 
above the sea, was removed 90 yards to the south-westward, nearly in a direct line, 
the difference in height between the old and new station being only 5 feet. 
A 
B 
New Station. Q, 
90 yards, 57° E. of North. 
Old Station. 
Gauge removed from A to B. 
