In Glashier’s Rain Gauge special provision is made, in two ways, to prevent possible loss by evaporation, even in the warmest months of the year. 1. The receiving vessel is partly sunk beneath the soil, thus keeping the contents cool. 2. The receiving surface of the funnel, accurately turned to a diameter of eight inches, terminates at its lower extremity in a curved tube, which, by always retaining the last few drops of rain, prevents evaporation. The graduated vessel, in this instance also, is divided to 100ths of an inch, having due regard to the larger area, 8 in. of the funnel. For use in tropical climates, where, as has been shown, the rainfall is excessive, a modification of this instrument is supplied by the instrument makers, having an extra large receiver and tap for drawing off the collected rain. Luke Howard, in his “Climate of London,” says: “It must be a subject of great satisfaction and confidence to the husbandman to know at the beginning of a summer, by the certain evidence of meteorological results on record, that the season, in the ordinary course of things, may be expected to be a dry and warm one, or to find, in a certain period of it, that the average quantity of rain to be expected for the month has fallen. On the other hand, when there is reason, from the same source of information, to expect much rain, the man who has courage to begin his operations under an unfavourable sky, but with good ground to conclude, from the state of his instruments and his collateral knowledge, that a fair interval is approaching, may often be profiting by his observations, while his cautious neighbour, who ‘waited for the weather to settle,’ may find that he has let the opportunity go by.” This superiority, however, is attainable by a very moderate share of application to the subject, and by the keeping of a plain diary of the barometer and rain gauge, with the hygrometer and vane under his daily notice. [Illustration: 49. Symons’s Rain Gauge. Scale about 1/7.] Symons’s Rain Gauge resembles Howard’s, but has the advantage of having the glass receiver enclosed in a black or white japanned metal or copper jacket with openings permitting an approximate observation of the collected rain. The metal jacket is also furnished with strong iron spikes, which are firmly pressed into the soil, as shown at Fig. 49, thus ensuring perfect steadiness by its power to resist the wind. The graduated measure contains half an inch of rain (for a 5 inch circle) divided into 100ths. [Illustration: 50. Symons’s Storm Rain Gauge. Scale about 1/12.]