554 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXVI . 



Mysore country. Here I tliiuk the climate is the barrier. When 

 the moisture-laden clouds of the south-west monsoon strike the Ghats, 

 they part at once with most of the contained water, and the rainfall 

 during this period on, and in the immediate vicinit}' of the Ghats, 

 is 250 inches at least. As the clovids pass inland, the}' discharge 

 the rest of their contained moisture in a comparatively short 

 distance, and so the south-west rains do not extend very far inland. 

 Every mile you go east from the Ghats makes a difference of 10 

 inches or more. Nilgiri-Wynaad being further from the coast 

 than South or North Wynaad, the rainfall is lighter. On our Ghats 

 it is about 150 inches. I am not more than 5 miles from the Ghats 

 in a direct line, yet my average drops to 90 inches. Estates lying- 

 east of Rockwood, and only about 2 miles away as the crow 

 flies, get about 65 inches. And not much farther east still, the 

 south-west monsoon peters out altogether. So, adjacent to Wynaad 

 on the east there is a zone of the Mysore country where the 

 annual rainfall is only about 40 inches, part received during the 

 south-west monsoon, and pai't during the north-east monsoon. This 

 makes a great difference in the physical aspect of the two zones, and 

 an equally marked difference in the climate. The western face of the 

 Ghats, exposed to the full forceofthesouth-west monsoon, is mighty 

 evergreen forest. On the Wynaad Plateau, this gives place to 

 deciduous jungle, largely interspersed with bamboo. Directly the 

 east limit of the monsoon is reached, the country changes completely, 

 and becomes open and dry. In South-East Wynaad the climate can 

 rightly be described as temperate — on Rockwood in the hot weather 

 (March, April and May) the thermometer never climbs much 

 over 80. But to cross the boundary into the dry Mysore countrj'- 

 means a transition almost to the climate of the plains. It is this 

 marked and sudden difference in rainfall, vegetation, and climate 

 (which would mean a different habitat), that may I think account 

 for the fact that the Wynaad species do not extend into Mysore. 

 These views are crude, and very possibly in some respects they are 

 erroneous. The western half of the Nilgiri Plateau is much higher 

 than the eastern half : the Dodabetta ridge cuts the plateau in half, 

 and forms a* barrier between the east and west halves ; and the 

 rainfall is far heavier in the western half. The latter gets most 

 of its rain during the south-west monsoon ; the Coonoor or Eastern 

 belt depends chiefly on the north-east monsoon." 



The map illustrating the terrain referred to is a reduced repro- 

 duction of that given by Mr. P. W. P. Pletcher in his highly in- 

 teresting and charmingly written book " Sport on the Nilgiris." 



Altogether 1,699 snakes came in, of which 831 were collected in 

 the Wynaad. This large total comprises 43 different species, one 

 of which Typhloios fletcheri can be claimed as new to Science. 



