B. TERRESTRIAL PHYSICS AND METEOROLOGY. 93 



concludes that no such effects are discernible, and that certain 

 explanations of the winds of India, as based on such a con- 

 ception, are erroneous. Evidence is adduced to show that 

 anti-monsoon currents blow in the upper strata of the atmos- 

 phere at the various seasons of the year and at varying ele- 

 vations, causing corresponding modifications in the general 

 temperature; the operation of all winds being to distribute 

 the temperature peculiar to them. To the descent of the 

 anti-monsoon current from the south the author is disposed 

 to attribute the rains of the cold season. Attention is also 

 directed to the velocity of the wind currents near the sea; 

 the westerly winds increasing in force as they approach Ben- 

 gal, and the southeasterly winds diminishing in force as 

 they reach the northwest provinces; indicating that the de- 

 scending and ascending currents must be formed in the upper 

 strata, though of the return southward of any descending 

 current from the north there is no direct evidence. Proc. 

 Roy. Soc, XXII., 218. 



THE WINDS OF INDIA. 



In an article on the climate of Bengal, by Bland ford, of Cal- 

 cutta, he states that the wind system of Bengal, although 

 often described, is yet very generally misunderstood, at least 

 as regards the character and origin of the monsoons on the 

 land. These are not two undivided currents flowing to and 

 from Central Asia during the winter periods of the year, but 

 appear rather to consist at each period of two principal cur- 

 rents, one tending to or from Northern India, the other to or 

 from the interior of China ; and there are probably two or 

 more minor currents, originating or terminating at their 

 centres. The winter branch of the monsoon originates in 

 the plains of the Punjab, the valley of the Ganges, and the 

 uplands of Central India, and blows as a very gentle wind 

 toward the two great bays that wash the east and M'est 

 coasts of the peninsula. During this season a southerly wind 

 prevails steadily on Himalaya, at heights above six or eight 

 thousand feet; this appears to be the upper return current 

 of the winter monsoon, and corresponds to the anti-trade of 

 the trade-wind region. It descends on the plains of Upper 

 India, where the atmosphere is characteristically calm at this 

 season, and brings the winter rains. In a subsequent part of 



