250 On the Land Winds of Coromandel, 



sphere was not coaled in the latter part of the night by 

 breezes that have wafted over extensive inundated plains. 



I can refer, secondly, to my Meteorological Journal, 

 according to which, the 4th of June 1800, at Madavaram, 

 a place not far from Bengalore, the thermometer rose for a 

 short time to 104° just before a slight shower of rain, and 

 at a time when heavy clouds darkened the western hemi- 

 sphere. 



Further, in the months of March and April, 1 804, wc 

 had often at Bengalore, in the afternoons, strong gusts of 

 wind from the eastward, which, in common, were styled 

 land winds, and were really as hot and disagreeable as mo- 

 derate land winds are in the Carnatic. 1 eould have mul- 

 tiplied instances of this kind, but am of opinion that in a 

 fact so much known it would be perfectly needless. 



The last refuge of the defenders of this theory is the 

 valleys of the Ghauts, in which they pretend the heat is 

 generated by the concentrated and reflected rays of th^ 

 sun. 



I will not deny but the heat occasioned by these causes 

 may contribute much to raise the heat of the land winds; 

 but the sudden appearance of the latter, their usual strength, 

 and abrupt disappearance, all militate against that explana- 

 tion as a principal cause. 



The heat of these winds should in this case, to say a few 

 words more on the preceding subject, decrease regularly 

 from the point where it is greatest towards the opposite, on 

 both sides, as is the case on the coast of Coromandel. On 

 the contrary, we find that, immediately on our having 

 ascended the Ghauts, or on the top of hills * elevated above 

 the clouds, we have escaped their heat all at once. It is 

 hereby remarkable, that the direction of the wind remains 

 to appearance nearly the same every where. In Mysore, 

 for example, the wind is, in the land wind season, west 

 during the greater part of the day; in the afternoon it is 

 from the east, and commonly warmer than the former. 



This, together with what had been said before, will, I 

 hope, be thought sufficient to establish my opinion re- 



* MaJQT Lambton, at the top of Carnatighur, one of the highest hills m 

 the Carnatie, about three thousand two hundred feet above the level of th« 

 sea, found, in the middle of the land wind season, the therxnotnetei at 79° and 

 W in the mornings, and, at noon, 82° and 84°, when it was below at 103* 

 and more. 



This observation may be the more depended upon, as the Major remained 

 for a considerable time on the top of this bill, in the pursuance of h; ntost 

 accurate survey, in the course of which he pays great attention to this as 

 we'd as (o all other points that could influence his learned labour;:. 



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