button to main menu  British Rainfall 1897, p.18

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British Rainfall 1897 page18
It will be noticed that in the following table we have included the records for 1896, whereas in British Rainfall, 1895, the Seathwaite ratios could only be given down to 1895; we have of course determined the ratio for 1896, viz., 91.
It will give some idea of the work needed for the preparation of such a paper as this, if we mention that records from 147 stations have been utilized, and that the aggregate number of yearly records dealt with has been 1,612 - an average of eleven years for each station, - the Seathwaite record of 52 years being the longest, but followed by a 49 year record at Keswick, by two of 42 years (Coniston and Mirehouse, Basenthwaite), and by one of 41 years at Whinfell Hall.
We do not put forward the work as perfect, either as regards the observations or the calculations, but nearly all the observations appear correct, and we see no prospect of better ones being available for years to come; and as regards the extraction of the data and the calculations, much of both has been done in duplicate, and only one error (amounting to less than a tenth-of-an-inch at one station) has been detected, so that we trust that there is no fear of anything serious having escaped detection, or of the general conclusions hereinafter stated being materially modifed by another half-century's work.
In the following tables the stations are given separately for each county, viz., Lancashire, Cumberland and Westmoreland, and in each county they follow very nearly in the usual order from south to north.
Having explained how the mean values given (for each station) in the last column have been arrived at, we have to add a few words of comment.
As will be explained further on, the mean rainfall given in the last column is also given upon the accompanying map, but in some instances the stations are so close one to another that the figures could not all be printed, and in all such cases it will be noted that the stations are bracketed together, and the mean of the group is stated; this is the case with entries 2 to 5 inclusive, and it will perhaps be wondered why the average is entered as 67 instead of 71, which is the average of the four entries. The answer is, that reference to the previous column will show that two of the values are base each on only one year's observations, whereas the others depend on nine and on ten years respectively; and in working out the mean, the greater import
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