HH62/2/STIRLI/11

Transcription

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ing nuisances, or other matters requiring sanitary attention, may
be left at the local police stations, to be forwarded to the Sanitary
Inspectors, and that public attention be called to this arrange-
ment by placards posted through the country districts. In the
course of 1892 I will be able to form an opinion as to how this
and one or two other newly-arranged details of administration
will work out in practice in Dunbartonshire, and whether they
might also be adopted in Stirlingshire.
Topography. - The County forms an irregularly oblong figure,
stretching from the Firth of Forth on the east to Loch Lomond on
the west. On the north its main boundary is the River Forth and
its tributary the Duchray Water, and near the head of Loch
Lomond it touches the shores of Loch Katrine. On the south its
main boundary is the River Kelvin. On the east and south-east
is the River Avon, and on the west are Loch Lomond, the River
Endrick, the Catter and other burns, and the Allander Water.
The County is about thirty miles long from east to west, and
about fifteen from north to south.
Climate. - In a county with a surface so varied as that of
Stirling, it is obvious that, owing to local conditions of elevation,
exposure, &c., there will be much variety of climate. In the
highland part of the Western District it is necessarily severe,
and the population is scanty, while at the other end of the
county is the well-known sheltered resort of Bridge of Allan. Of
the fifty-five stations of the Scottish Meteorological Society, not
one is situated in Stirlingshire, so that very little exact informa-
tion is obtainable regarding the details which go to make up
climate. Mr. Aitken of Darroch has, however, directed my
attention to an old volume of the Journal of the Meteorological
Society, which gives the mean monthly and annual temperature
for the three years 1858-61. It may be useful to put these on
record here. The observations were taken at Stirling, at a station
233 feet above the sea level. They are as follows, in degrees
Fahrenheit:-

[Table Inserted]

These figures show a mean annual temperature of 46·5ºF., and


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a mean monthly temperature ranging from 36·1ºF. in January to
58ºF. in July.
Rainfall observations have been made for a number of years at
several stations within the County, and have been published in
Symon's annual volumes. Table 1. gives the facts for the seven
years ending 1890, with, for comparison, the mean of all the
records kept in Scotland during the same period:-