264 NOTES—ORIGINAL AND SELECTED.
task up in despair. A few, no doubt, have been fortunate in possessing friends,
whose knowledge of particular groups of fossils could be drawn upon. But it is
not always that one knows the best person to apply to, or that one can be certain
of a favourable reception. Natural Science, in its December number, has
published a list of twenty-six specialists who are willing to determine groups
of fossils from various strata, when requested to do so for purposes of
publication, and this enterprising action will doubtless be welcomed by many
local geologists. We hope that this list is only a first instalment, for there
certainly appear to be a large number of groups of fossils in which no one is
prepared to pose as an authority.
Rainfall at Lexden (near Colchester) and at Chelmsford in 1896.—
Mr. S. F. Hurnard, of Hill House, Lexden, has furnished the following particulars
of the rainfall at that place, the observations having been taken daily at 9 o'clock
a.m., from a 5-inch certified "Snowdon" gauge :
The greatest fall in twenty-four hours was 1.15 inches, measured on
September 1st.
There was an absolute drought for sixteen days from May 3rd to 18th inclusive,
and three partial droughts, viz., thirty-two days, January 38th to February 28th,
when .32 inches fell ; thirty-three days, May 1st to June 2nd, when .21 inches fell ;
and forty-five days, June 11th to July 25th, when .24 inches fell.
The average yearly rainfall in the Lexden district is about twenty-three inches.
The following is the rainfall for 1896, as registered by Mr. F. Chancellor at
Chelmsford. He says that the average rainfall for the ten years, 1895 to 1896
inclusive, was twenty-one inches. (See also Mr. Chancellor's notes, ante, p. 232.)