222 
ST. ALBANS AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD. 
the method of observation, is condensed from the paper just 
referred to. 
Latitude, 51° 45' 9" N.; longitude, 0° 20' 7" W. Centre of 
St. Albans (Town Hall), 170 yards S.W. ; Parish Church 
(St. Peter’s), 340 yards N.N.E. G-round-level at thermometer- 
screen 380 feet above Ordnance Datum and at rain-gauge 
379 feet. Thermometers, dry-bulb, wet-bulb, Negretti maximum, 
Eutherford minimum, 4 feet above the ground in a Stevenson 
screen, over grass. Eain-gauge, Snowdon pattern, 5 inches in 
diameter, top of rim 1 foot above the ground (grass). Observa¬ 
tions taken at 9 a.m. Eeadings entered to day of observation, 
except those of maximum thermometer and rain-gauge, which 
are entered to the previous day ; all corrected for index-errors of 
instruments verified at the Kew Observatory. 
Situation very open and well elevated above the valley of the 
Ver. Ground sloping downwards towards the south, also falling 
on either side of this main gradient, giving a convex contour 
made up of a south-westerly slope to the Eiver Ver, half a mile 
distant, and of a south-easterly slope to the Eiver Colne, distant 
about three miles. 
Sub-soil gravel on chalk, with a considerable depth of surface- 
soil, which, having very little clay in its composition, soon 
transmits the rain which falls upon it to the pervious gravel 
and chalk underneath. Natural level of the plane of saturation 
in the chalk about 130 feet beneath the surface, rising very 
slightly from the two rivers, and somewhat lowered by pumping 
operations. 
The Hertfordshire County Museum is so near to The Grange 
(about an eighth of a mile N.E.), and the situation is so similar, 
except for its being on the edge of an outlier of Heading Beds, 
that the above particulars apply almost equally to it, but the 
situation may be thus precisely defined:—Latitude, 51° 45' 15" N.; 
longitude, 0° 19' 56" W. Town Hall 390 yards S.W.; St. Peter’s 
Church 170 yards NHST.W. Ground-level at thermometer-screen 
and rain-gauge 389 feet above O.D. 
Space does not allow of any disquisition on the results of the 
observations ; the accompanying table gives all the necessary 
information and does not require any explanation. 
The term of 24 years is sufficiently long to give trustworthy 
results for every element of climate but rainfall. For that 
a much longer period is required, and we have within our area 
two rainfall-stations of much longer duration—Gorhambury and 
Eothamsted—each with a record of at least 50 years. The 
former is two miles to the west of the Town Hall and the latter 
is four miles to the north. There are three rain-gauges at 
Eothamsted ; the results of the 5-inch gauge are given here. 
Its rim is 9 inches above the ground (grass). At Gorhambury 
a gauge 6 inches square with its rim 2 ft. 6 ins. above the 
ground was replaced at the end of the year 1892 by one 5 inches 
in diameter with its rim 1 foot above the ground. 
