The prevalent Atlantic winds largely affect our island in another way, namely in its rainfall. The air, heavily laden with moisture from its passage over the ocean, meets with elevated land-tracts directly it reaches our shores--the moorland of Devon and Cornwall, the Welsh mountains, or the fells of Cumberland and Westmorland--and blowing up the rising land-surface, parts with this moisture as rain. To how great an extent this occurs is best seen by reference to the map of the annual rainfall of England on the next page, where it will at once be noticed that the heaviest fall is in the west, and that it decreases with remarkable regularity until the least fall is reached on our eastern shores. Thus in 1906, the maximum rainfall for the year occurred at Glaslyn in the Snowdon district, where 205 inches of rain fell; and the lowest was at Boyton in Suffolk, with a record of just under 20 inches. These western highlands, therefore, may not inaptly be compared to an umbrella, sheltering the country further eastward from the rain. The above causes, then, are those mainly concerned in influencing the weather, but there are other and more local factors which often affect greatly the climate of a place, such, for example, as configuration, position, and soil. The shelter of a range of hills, a southern aspect, a sandy soil, will thus produce conditions which may differ greatly from those of a place--perhaps at no great distance--situated on a wind-swept northern slope with a cold clay soil. Berkshire is an inland county but no part of it is as much as 75 miles from the coast. The chalk downs have a fine bracing climate, and though some of the valleys may be relaxing and some of the moorland tracts bleak, the general climate of the county is exceedingly healthy. Compared with the south coast of England Berkshire is rather cooler, with somewhat less sunshine and less rain than the coast. Temperature, it should be remarked, varies according to height above sea level, falling about 1° Fahr. for each 100 to 300 feet upwards. In a comparatively level district, like Berkshire, this is not a very serious consideration. The mean temperature for the year varies in different parts of England from about 47·3 in the north-eastern counties to about 49·6 in the south-east. The mean temperature is about 49·0 in northern Berkshire and about 47·5 in south-western Berkshire. It may be of interest to give the mean temperature for one year at places in and close around Berkshire. We take the year 1907 and the figures are as follows--Maidenhead 49·4, Wokingham 47·7, Swarraton in Hampshire 47·9, Marlborough in Wiltshire 47·4, and Oxford 48·9. The average temperature in the month of January varies from 37·0 to 38·0 in different parts of the county, and the average temperature for July from 59·7 to 62·0.