, 1896-05-23

IGDOIO CPlilolfiO, Captain " SRIlIIc CAlGnC LhA
apparent delay which has attended the publ.
cation. But late although the Report before
us is in seeing the light, we find that it il
only a partial account of the work done in
the gardens, the agricultural, or shall we
say, the major, portion of the work being
yet to be dealt with in a separate report in
Joint preparation with Professor Harrison.
In the general report, the one now before
us, the opening portion deals at considerable
length with the meteorological conditions
of the period which the report covers and
also Of the colony generally, one years data
being very like another, especially in the
therqmometrical returns. the temperature of
Guiana ENG 50 equable and of 80 limited a
range that no other place in the world from
which information is furnished to the London
Meteorological Society, surpasses it in these
respects, except one, the aame Of which the
report does not mention. 1t will supply to
readers beyond the colony information of an
authentic and int esting kind, and not only
to these but to readers in the colony who
have given no personai attention to he ques-
ton, if we quote the salient figures in tie
statistics, 1873 being the YER TO which they
refer. In The Botanic Gardens there is an
in~geniOus1y designed inst ume1t Of automatic
action. which at the close Of each day shows
every hour during which Tie sun was visible
in the heavens saving Il short time after sun
rise and before sunset when the rays are not
Of sufficient strens h to be recorded upon the
register. During the year Just mentioned,
we had bright suns ne on 1872 dA .e-a fact
which might we'll re srourNo hem fripnds.
especially those ~ London and the larger
cities, envious of snc, q Blessing. I'm March.
June, July, August, September and October
we had sunshine cvcly day in Nav anl
December we had it On 30 ,jays: in January
and April on 70 days; in February #, and
November q. The tenn, era'ure is generally,
but most enormously supposed by those who
have not haG personal experience OF tho
climate, to 4un UP to about 100 degrees or
more in the shaCe. this beng a common
experience in the sgmmer months with
people who live in so-callcd temperate
chimes. The average maximum in the shade,
during the day, was 84.4; during the night
1910; and the extraordinary equalizer 81
OF our climate VIII become api aren't when
we state that the highest tempe: allure
recorded in the shale was 81, Uhen Sc, in
September aod October, these being hot dry
months; and the lowest 50 and SO. in
February end March respectively. The
highest ma& mum in the sun was IA and
Inc IOWeSG lou lNu we TEN p9ldluI0 OH
the grass ranged from 50 to II. These
faures referring exclusively to the temporal
tue might be safely used for any year, so
closely does one year IL. cmblo another; but
the sunshine record depends a great deal
upon whether the prevailing weather Of
the year be wet or dry, In the yer under
notice we had rain more or less on 2l3
days, but on only % days was the tall
regater than one inch. The rainfall for the
whole year was 50 inches, which was very
far short Of the returns Of the FIVE immedi-
ately preceding years, e CHI of them over
100 inches, 1859 havlng had 1913, and 1898
as much as 135 inches. In a previous
report, Mr.. Jenman remarked that pro-
longed periods Of nnusually heavy and
unusually light rainfall follow each other in
succession, each LISTING abo 1t five or seven
years. The weather since 1894 is bearing
ont the correctness of tn observation. The
five years 19S9-93 we've all years Of heavy
rainfall during which tlleve were period.
cally a submergence of cane lands and
provision farms, but the change which set
in in 1894 was maintained in 1895, and
so far the rainfall of this current year is
considerably behind that of the preceding
one, date for date. The change to dry
did not take place q day to0 soon, the five
long years Of heavy rain having, to quote
from the report, placed the land in a sodden
impacted state, most detrimental to agricul-
ture but the nature of our %alluvial land