_Rain-Gauge._—While measurements of rainfall can possess no
climatological value unless they are carried on continuously at a
fixed station, some very interesting observations may be made by the
traveller both during the night when in camp, and during heavy showers
when compelled to stop on the march. The rain-gauge is in itself the
most simple of all scientific instruments, for it consists essentially
of a copper funnel to collect the rain as it falls, and a bottle to
contain what has been collected. A graduated measuring glass is the only
accessory required. Rain is measured by the depth to which the water
would lie on level ground if none soaked in, evaporated or flowed away.
On an emergency, a rain-gauge can be improvised out of a biscuit tin,
or any vessel with vertical sides and an unobstructed mouth. Such a
vessel standing level would collect the rain, the depth of which might be
measured by an ordinary inch-rule. It is rare, however, to find rain so
heavy as to give any appreciable depth when collected in a vessel freely
open to evaporation, and in order to estimate the amount of rainfall
to small fractions of an inch, the device is employed of measuring the
water collected in the receiver of the gauge in a glass jar of much
smaller diameter than the mouth of the collecting funnel. Thus, if the
funnel exposes a surface of fifty square inches, and the measuring glass
has a cross-section of one square inch, the fall of 1/50 of an inch of
rain on the funnel will give a quantity of water sufficient to fill the
measuring glass to the depth of an inch. In this way the actual rainfall
may be read to the thousandth part of an inch without trouble. The
smallest diameter for a serviceable rain-gauge is five inches, and this
size is well adapted for the traveller. A three-inch rain-gauge might
be employed, but the results obtained with it are not so satisfactory.
The rain-gauge should be placed in an open situation, so that it is not
sheltered by any surrounding trees or buildings, and it ought to be
firmly fixed by placing it between three wooden pegs driven securely
into the ground. The mouth of the gauge should be level, and when the
instrument is fixed, the rim of the funnel ought to be one foot above
the ground. A spare measuring glass should be carried, but as there is
always a considerable risk of breaking such fragile objects, it is well
to carry also one or two small brass measures of the capacity of half
an inch, two-tenths of an inch, and one-tenth of an inch of measured
rainfall. In this way, although no satisfactory record could be kept
of light rainfall, a very fair estimate may be made of any torrential
showers, the half-inch measure being used first, and then the smaller
measures, finally estimating by eye the fraction of the tenth of an inch
that remains over. It must, however, be distinctly borne in mind that an
estimate formed in this way is not an accurate measurement, and the fact
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