British Rainfall 1896, p.19
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British Rainfall 1896 page 19
identical with that taken last year, but with the addition of the stations now quoted. The Roman numerals refer to the columns in Tables I. and II., and indicate the site and name of the station. The second map is on the large scale of six inches to the mile, represents the central area enclosed by a black line on the one-inch map, and thus gives full details as to the site of The Stye gauges. Something also should be said representing the illustrations. The frontispiece is a general view of Derwentwater, taken from the low ground under Skiddaw, and looking nearly due south over Keswick and the Lake into the hills of Borrowdale. The photograph whence this is reproduced is of especial meteorological interest, because it so happens that there is a small cloud resting exactly upon The Stye, and thus at the same time indicating the position of the gauges and the reason for the amount which they collect. The total distance from the camera to the cloud was nine miles. The other view, facing p.20, is taken from the point marked C1 on the large-scale map, it was about two-thirds of a mile south of Seathwaite, and near Stockley Bridge, which, as shown by the rough scale of altitudes in the margin, is about 400 feet below The Stye gauges, the positions of which are indicated by the intersection of the arrows in the top corner of the plate. STATION I. - Sca Fell Pike is the loftiest, and has been the most troublesome and unsatisfactory of all. The rain gauge has frequently been frozen for some months. Several times it has been necessary to carry the whole gauge and ice down to Wasdale (about 2,600 ft. lower) in order to thaw and measure its contents. Once the observer, who was carrying down two gauges (weighing nearly a hundredweight), slipped, and the gauges rolled away and were smashed. Another time an observer slipped and broke his leg. No gauge in a locality like the top of Sca Fell Pike is, we think, likely to give good results; the wind velocity sweeps the rain over, and so prevents it falling into, the gauge, and snow by its less density will fare even worse. It would probably not be difficult to design two gauges the one of which should collect ten times as much snow as the other. We are, therefore, not surprised, though it is not satisfactory, to find that the records from this station differ very greatly. Dr. Miller's observations indicate a mean of 75 inches, the subsequent ones, of 94; but the individual years differ very widely - years of large fall on the summit being rarely synchronous with |
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