TEMPERATURES IN WOODED AND TREELESS REGIONS. 91 



They are generally iu larger or smaller open places, generally on tlie 

 north side of the bnihliiig. Tliey ai-e, therefore, often of the nature of 

 " glade" stations. Whih^, they will not show the relation between the 

 interior air of forests and the surface air of prairies, tliey will bear on 

 the pracitically more interesting question of the ditt'erenccs between 

 these spots of a wooded region which are occupied by man and the 

 prairie or plain, or the treeless region. The results, however, will dif- 

 fer somewhat from those obtained by a system of parallel stations. 



The meteorologist who has published the most elaborate study of 

 this subject is Dr. Woeikofif, who has devoted a chapter to it in his 

 book on the climates of the earth. A striking case given by him in 

 some detail is that of northern India. April to July are here the hot 

 months. From July on the heat is tempered by abundant rains. The 

 temperatures are compared, for the hot months, over a territory that 

 includes the three different characters of treeless, transition, and 

 wooded. In the first the vegetation is already burnt up by March, ex- 

 cept for small stretches where irrigation is practiced. TJie third is the 

 great forest region of the middle course of the Brahmaputra and its 

 southern tributaries, where the surface is covered with the densest for- 

 ests, and the openings are little else than islands in the sea of forest. 

 The transition region lies over the delta of the Ganges and northward 

 and has no extended forests, but groves and scattered trees and abun- 

 dance of bamboos. The table which follows is Dr. Woeikotf 's, except 

 that for the most of the stations the temperatures have been taken from 

 a later publication, that of Mr. Blanford's " Climates of India." 



The fall of the temperatures in the hot months i\s the forest is reached 

 is very noticeable, and it is still more so in the reduction of the maxima. 

 The cooling in the forest region even appears to surpass that due to 

 proximity to the sea. It is true that this ditfercnce iu temperature 

 may be in part due, as has been claimed, to other causes. The teni- 



