248 On the Land Winds of Coromandel, 



a diminution of it, and consequently a relative coldness* 

 On the same principle depends also the cooling of wine 

 and water, in the land wind seasons, the latter in light 

 earthen vessels which allow an oozing of the water through 

 their pores, and the former in bottles wrapped in a piece 

 of cloth or in straw, which must be constantly kept moist-. 

 ened. 



The great violence of these winds is at last terminated 

 by frequent showers of rain, in June, in the low countries* 

 and by the greater quantify of the regular rains falling in 

 the inland countries, which seem to suspend the partial 

 formation of clouds along the Ghauts, and to leave them 

 clearer, and visible at a greater distance than they had been 

 at any other period of the year before. 



After the enumeration of so many disagreeable circum- 

 stances, I am naturally led to an investigation of the causes, 

 that produce them. Before this can be done, however, I 

 must prove, according to promise, that the theory of our 

 philosophers is founded in error. 



They ascribe, as already observed, the extraordinary heat 

 which distinguishes these winds from most others, to the 

 absorption of caloric in their passage over an extensive 

 tract of country, at a time when the sun acts most power- 

 fully in our latitudes. 



According to this theory, the heat should increase in 

 proportion to the space over which this wind is to travel ; 

 it should be hotter on the coast than it is at any. part of the 

 country inland, or, which is the same, it should decrease 

 by degrees from the eastern to the western sea of the penin- 

 sula. Experience, however, teaches us the reverse ; for 

 it is hottest near the Ghauts, and among the valleys between 

 those ranges of hills, than at any place on the coast ; and 

 the heat of those winds decreases also as they approach the 

 Bay or' Bengal, and in a direct ratio from the Ghauts to the 

 sea : accordingly, it is at Amboro* hotter than at Velloref, 

 and at this place again than at Arcot J, Conjeveram §, and 

 jVladras, where the land winds are seldom felt with any de- 

 gree of severity. 



* A place situated in the most western valley of the Ghauts, immediately 

 at the foot of the steepest ascent into the Mysore country. 



+ Lies in a spacious valley nearly at the entrance of the Ghaut mountains, 

 and has the advantage of an open communication with the flat country to 

 the north-east. 



\ A large city> the capital of the nabobs of the Carnatic, east of the ranges 

 of hills called the Ghauts. 



§ . . . miles east of the latter place in the road to Madras, a large popu- 

 lous place. I have chosen this tract or line as the most known, although 

 not the hottest ; for EUore, Rajahmundry, and Samulcptah in the Northern 

 Circars, are by far more exposed to these winds. Time 



