MISCELLANEOUS NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 
73 
46°*6. This would appear to indicate a decreasing temperature, 
hut this idea is to some extent qualified when we see that the 
second decade was 0°*4 warmer than the first, and that the fourth 
decade was 0°*4 warmer than the third. Again, the warmest year, 
1868, nine of the warmest months, and only three of the coldest, 
were in the first half of the period; and the coldest year, 1879, nine 
of the coldest months, and only three of the warmest, were in the 
second half; hut if we examine the mean monthly temperature 
in each decade, we find no regular gradation from warm to cold. 
Nor do we find any such gradation if we group the months into 
seasons, as in the following table, which shows that the first 
decade was characterised by warm summers and autumns, the 
second by very mild winters and springs with comparatively cool 
summers, the third by low temperature throughout the year and 
especially cold autumns, and the fourth by cold winters and springs. 
Temperature of the Seasons at Hit chin, 1850-89. 
Decades. 
Spring. 
Mar.-Apl. 
Summer. 
May-July. 
Autumn. 
Aug.-Oct. 
Winter. 
Nov.-Jan. 
Year. 
O 
O 
O 
O 
O 
i85o-59 ... 
447 
59*9 
48*0 
36*8 
47’4 
1860-69 . 
46-3 
59-o 
48*1 
377 
47-8 
1870-79 . 
44*6 
58*8 
46*3 
36*2 
46*4 
1880-89 . 
44*5 
59'i 
47*3 
36*2 
46*8 
1850-89 .. 
45‘0 
59 ‘ 2 
47'4 
367 
47*1 
The absolute minimum temperature was zero, in 1855, and the 
absolute maximum was 88°, in 1868. 
The mean rainfall for the whole period was 24'80 inches; for 
the first twenty years, 24-31 ins., and for the last twenty, 25-29 ins., 
showing an increase of about one inch in the rainfall, as there was 
a decrease of one degree in the temperature. The mean rainfall 
for the first decade was 24-70 ins., for the second, 23*92 ins., for 
the third, 25*54 ins., and for the fourth, 25*05 ins., the relation 
of each of these amounts to the mean being respectively \ °/ 0 less, 
4 °/ Q less, 3£ °/ Q more, and 1 % more. The driest year was 1864, 
with a fall of 17*16 ins., and the wettest year was 1852, with a 
fall of 34*11 ins., both extremes thus being in the first half of the 
period. 
It would therefore appear that if the temperature or the 
rainfall in the north of Hertfordshire is undergoing any secular 
change, forty years is too short a period to conclusively show it. 
A connection can clearly be traced between the temperature and 
the rainfall; cold periods are on the average wet, and warm periods 
are dry. This is strikingly shown in the second and third decade, 
one being much the warmest and driest, and the other much the 
coldest and wettest of the four .—John Hoplcinson, St. Allans. 
