DISTRICT OF CUxMBERLAND AND WESTMORELAND. 
329 
last year has not only received less rain than the valley, but a smaller quantity by 
6 inches than at 3166 feet on Sea Fell Pike. 
At a future time I hope to follow out this inquiry more fully and systematically, 
by placing pluviometers at different heights on the breast of Sea Fell, with the view 
of ascertaining the effect produced by position on rising ground, over or under that 
due to the respective elevations. 
It is not pretended that the law which appears to regulate the distribution of rain 
in the mountain district of Cumberland, will equally apply to every similar locality ; 
it will doubtless be variously modified according to latitude, position, and many other 
circumstances ; in some situations all trace of the law may disappear, and in others 
it is possible that it may be reversed. 
As my sole object in this inquiry is a search after truth, should my inferences and 
deductions be found to be incorrect by any one who may investigate the subject more 
fully and successfully in another locality, I shall feel no hesitation in acknowledging 
the error. 
In addition to the chief objects of research, I record the particulars of all 
extraordinary phenomena, such as thunder and hail-storms, great floods, and parti- 
cularly whirlwinds (to which the district is very liable), with a distant prospect of 
combining the whole in a separate paper, treating of the physical geography of the 
Lake Country. 
Whitehaven^ February 6, 1849. 
