22 REPORT—1846. 
The number of gauges in the lake districts, in addition to the above, is twelve, 
most of which are read off daily. 
It would appear from the average results since April last, that the amount of rain 
increases from the valley upwards, to an altitude of about 2000 feet, and gradually 
decreases above that elevation; thus the gauge at Sparkling Tarn (1900 feet) almost 
invariably receives more than any other of the gauges; much however depends upon 
the position of the mountain with respect to the prevailing wind; thus the gauge on 
Seatollar (nearly the same elevation as Sparkling, but bearing nearly due north) in- 
variably receives Jess rain than the valley at the end of a month; nevertheless, mea- 
surements made at short intervals, when a north or north-west wind had prevailed, 
show that it sometimes receives considerably more. 
Fall of Rain on the Coast of Travancore and Table Land of Uitree, from Ob- 
servations of M. General Cullen, Resident in Travancore. By Lt.-Colonel 
Sykes, F.R.S. 
At former meetings of the British Association I have had the means of submitting 
to the Physical Section facts illustrative of the meteorology of portions of Western 
India, particularly at great elevations, such as at Mahabuleshwur, near Sattarah, 
at the height of 4500 feet above the sea, and at a distance of about 30 or 40 miles 
inland. It was shown that the fall of rain in one monsoon was of the prodigious 
amount of 302°21 inches, or more than 25 feet depth of water. At a similar height 
at Merkara in Coorg, about 5° of latitude S. of Mahabuleshwur, and in about the 
same longitude, and at 65 miles from Cananore on the coast, the mean fall of rain 
for the years 1838, 1839 and 1840, was 143-35 inches. Communications from my 
friend General Cullen, the British minister at the Travancore court, enable me to ex- 
tend the meteorological observations, at least as far as relates to temperature and the 
fall of rain, to Cape Comorin, supplying also data for a comparison of the fall of rain 
on the coast and at short distances inland, at a considerable elevation. I may state 
that we are indebted for the present communication from India to the stimulus oc- 
casioned by the publication of the Mahabuleshwur and Merkara observations in the 
volumes of the Association. General Cullen’s letter to me is dated Cochin, the 27th of 
July 1845, and he states that he had been in the habit for many years past of observing 
the meteorology of his location, wherever that might be, but that the pressure of his 
public duties had disabled him from reducing and arranging the observations, parti- 
cularly the barometrical. He had, however, been enabled to transmit to the govern- 
ment of Madras, statements of the fall of rain along the western or Malabar coast of 
Hindoostan, from Cape.Comorin in Travancore, lat. 8° 4!, to the town of Cochin and to 
Panlghatcherry, in lat. 10° 45’, as well as at several inland stations in the provinces of 
Cochin and Travancore; and in the Company’s district of Tinnevelly, on the east side 
of the Ghats, for the years 1841, 1842 and 1843. These statements were accompanied 
with explanations which I shall shortly notice. In the year 1841 the stations selected 
in Travancore were 5; but the observations did not commence at Nagercoil, Trevan- 
drum and Quilon, before the month of May; and at Allepy and Cochin in the month 
of June. The stations on the east side of the Ghats were 3; at Vaurioor the obser- 
vations commenced in June, at Shenkotah in July, and at Palamcottah not before 
October. As the observations are not for equal periods, I shall confine myself to ob- 
serving that both the Malabar and Coromandel coasts appear to have been subjected to 
both monsoons, the S.W. and N.E. rain having fallen at all the stations in the months 
of October, November and December, as well as in the usual S.W. monsoon months of 
June to September inclusive. In the year 1842 the stations in Travancore and Cochin 
were extended to 8, and the observations were for the whole vear, with the exception of 
Tritchoor and Chittoor, where they did not commence until May, and at Koravantava- 
lum, where they did not commence until August. At the three former stations in Tin- 
nevelly the observations were for the whole year. In this year, although both mon- 
soons appear to have operated upon both coasts in the months of August, September, 
October and November, yet in the month of December rain only fell on two days on the 
Travancore coast, and only five times at Palamcottah on the opposite coast. The same 
discrepancies exist with respect to the months of January, February and March, rain 
having only fallen on thirty-eight days at all the eleven stations together, on both coasts, 
