THE RAINFALL IN DEVONSHIRE IN 1872, AND IN THE SEVEN YEARS ENDING WITH

DECEMBER 31ST, 1872.

RY W. PENGELLY, F.R.S., F.G.S.

(Read at Sidmouth, July, 1873.)

IN introducing this communication it is only necessary to state that the data on which it is based were obtained from Mr. Symons's British Rainfall for 1872, and that it has been drawn up on the principle used and explained in the papers on the Devonshire Rainfall, read yearly from 1868 to 1872.

PART I. TABLE I.

Stations:-The Stations in Devonshire from which rainfall returns have been published for 1872 are not quite so numerous as last year. Table I. in the present paper contains 58 stations, against 59 in 1871.

No returns have been received from Bampton or North Lew-both in last year's table. Eggesford (No. 43) makes its first appearance in the present Table.

The numerals in the third column show the number of years over which the observations extend at each station. At 25 the gauges have been in continuous operation for seven years.

Height above the Ground:-No important change in the height of the top of a gauge above the ground has been made since last year. At the new station the height is 14 inches. In the entire series the heights vary from 35 feet at Plymouth (No. 17) to 2 inches at Prince's Town (No. 9), and average 2 feet 8 inches, against 2 feet 7 inches in 1871.

Height above the Sea:-A few changes have been made in * See Trans. Devon Assoc., vol. ii. pp. 560-577; vol. iii. pp. 153-165, vol. iv. pp. 59-72, 654-670, and vol. v. pp. 371-391.

the heights of the gauges above the sea level, but none of them require special mention. The stations from which returns have been received on this point vary from 1500 feet at Rundle Stone (No. 10) to 26 feet at Sidmouth (No. 30), and average 342 feet, against 354 feet in 1871.

The Rainfall in 1872:-It is shown at the foot of the ninth column that the average rainfall of the entire county in 1872 was 59.09 inches or 55.68 inches, according as the Dartmoor stations (Widdecombe, Holne, Lee Moor, Sheepstor, Prince's Town, and Rundle Stone-Nos. 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10) were or were not included. The same column shows that the greatest rainfall at any station in 1872 was that at Rundle Stone (No. 10), and amounted to 98.13 inches.* The least fall was at Sidmouth (No. 30), where no more than 41.04 inches were registered-a quantity which bore to the greatest fall in the county the ratio of 418: 1000.

The greatest and least annual falls in the county during the seven years ending with 1872 are shown below:

TABLE II.

1866 1867 1868 1869 1870 1871 1872

Station of greatest fall Prince's Prince's Prince's Prince's Rudnle Rundle Rundle Town Town Town Town Stone Stone Stone

Do. least do.

Teign- Hele Burton St. G. North- Hele Sidmouth

am

34.68 19.12 27.90 41-04

Clyst mouth Greatest falls in inches 94.66 79.98 77.65 75.00 52.35 74.04 98.13 Least do. do. 25.36 30.09 27.52 Relative greatest fall 1000 845 820 Do. least do. 1000 1186

792 553 782 1037 1085 1368 754 1100 1618

The falls in 1872 at the six Dartmoor stations varied from 83.19 inches at Widdecombe (No. 3) to 98.13 inches at Rundle Stone (No. 10), and averaged 88.58 inches; which bore to the average of the remaining fifty-two stations the ratio of 100: 60.

The greater county average rainfall (59-09 inches) in 1872 was exceeded at 21 stations, but not reached at the remaining

*This was exceeded by the fall at "Dartmoor Prison Garden," which amounted to 105.92 inches, or 7.79 inches in excess. The Prison Garden gauge is the same height above the ground, but 150 feet nearer the sea level; the heights being 1,350 and 1,500 feet.

37; whilst the lower average (55.68 inches) was surpassed at 30 stations, 28 fell below it.

With the exception of Rose Ash and Zeal Monachorum (Nos. 45 and 58), every station 500 feet and upwards above the sea had comparatively great rainfalls.

Attention has more than once been called to the data supplied by Northam and Buckish (Nos. 53 and 54) in illustration of the influence of height of ground, and of its wet and dry sides. The latter of these stations is 550 feet high; the former is from 7 to 8 miles from it in a north-north-east direction, and its height is 173 feet. Their rainfalls during the seven years ending with 1872 are shown below.

The small rainfall at Ilfracombe, as compared with that at Bratton Fleming (Nos. 50 and 49), about ten miles from it towards the south-south-east, has been mentioned in former years, and is shown in the following figures :

All the circumstances of the Ilfracombe gauge, however, concur to secure for it a small receipt of rain. Its top is 9

* There were no returns from Ilfracombe prior to 1870.

feet above the ground, and only 34 feet above mean tide, whilst it is protected by high ground from every wet quarter.

Though Burton (No. 23), near the Bolt Tail, stands on a high table land jutting into the English Channel, and unprotected from the Atlantic, it professes to be dry beyond the average of the county, even exclusive of the Dartmoor stations, as appears from the following returns:

Witheridge has always shown a defective rainfall as compared with that at other stations in north-east Devon. This is well exemplified by the annual returns from it and from Meshaw, about 4 miles towards the N.N.W.

It is to be regretted that no information is sent in respecting the size of the Witheridge gauge, or of its height above the ground or the sea.

There were no returns from Burton in 1869.

Attention has been called in former years to the widely dissimilar returns from Lupton and Torquay (Nos. 26 and 27)-stations equally near the sea, at the same height above it, and almost equally protected by Dartmoor; but the former, on the south side of Torbay, having a gauge 12 inches in diameter and 42 inches above the ground, whilst the latter, on the north side of the same inlet, has a five-inch gauge placed 9 inches above the ground. Their rainfalls during the last five years are shown below:

Number of Wet Days:-Thirty-eight stations only-about two-thirds of the entire number-reported in 1872 the number of wet days, that is days on which not less than 01 inch fell. The twelfth column, Table I, shows that the greatest number was 264, at Okehampton (No. 56), that the average number was 228, and that the least was 162, at Hele (No. 38), the three numbers having the ratios of 116: 100: 71; that the average for the county was 55 days more than it was in 1871; and that the general average was exceeded at 23 stations, but not reached at 15.

Certain adjacent stations differed more, perhaps, than might have been anticipated in their annual numbers of wet days. Thus Ham and Ridgeway (Nos. 16 and 19), only four miles apart, having their gauges at nearly the same heights above the ground and the sea, sent in the following figures :