button to main menu  Otley's Guide 1823 (5th edn 1834)

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Page 170:-
is difficult to ascertain, with precision, the altitude of different objects by trigonometrical calculation. In a morning when the air above is clear, and nearly freed from vapour - while that near surface of the ground is charged with as much as it can contain without destroying its transparency - refraction is at the greatest; objects near the horizon appear more elevated than ordinary, and some are brought in sight that could not otherwise have been discerned: when, a little after mid-day - the vapour being more equally diffused - the altitude of an object may be more accurately observed.
  snow
A covering of snow makes a kind of barrier between the internal heat of the earth and that of the atmosphere: being a bad conductor, it preserves the surface of the earth from the severity of cold in winter; but in spring, excludes it from the genial effects of the solar rays. In the meantime the contiguous atmosphere suffers more extensive variations; the greatest extreme of cold being experienced when the earth is covered with snow.
  rainfall
The mean annual quantity of rain at Keswick is about 68 inches; at Kendal 60 inches; at Manchester 35 inches; at London 20 inches.
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