94. REPORT—1846. 
land E. from Quilon, and in the gorge of the great gap in the Ghats at Palghat, which 
opens to the Coromandel coast of ‘Tinnevelly, and on the high road it might be said 
of the aqueous vapour of both monsoons, had only 68 inches, while Allepy, on the 
open coast, had 131 inches, and Cochin 124 inches. The fall is greatest on the sea 
coast, diminishes at stations inland to the foot of the Ghats, but, as I shall have oc- 
casion to show, increases enormously on ascending the Ghats to their plateaus or table- 
lands. u 
General Cullen says it is difficult to attempt explanation of the differences in the 
amount of rain exhibited in his tables; but he offers some remarks on the winds and 
physical structure of the country as necessarily influencing the distribution of rain. 
The peninsula of India, as is known, is in a triangular form, the apex of which is Cape 
Comorin. The western Ghats in maps appear to run continuously without break from 
Cape Comorin to the 24 or 25° of latitude N.; but such is not the case. The land 
within the apex of the triangle to Palghat, a distance of 150 miles, rises precipitously 
into a table land 2000 or 3000 feet high, with peaks and masses attaining an elevation 
of 5000 or 6000 feet. It has at its sides a narrow low tract of land on both coasts. In 
the latitude of Palghat, this table land suddenly terminates in a chasm or gap forty 
miles long by thirty miles broad, without a single hill or ridge. There are other gaps, 
but of less marked character; in one of these stands Shenkotah. It might be supposed 
the continual passage of aqueous vapour through these gaps would continually drench 
them; but such is not the case, as the vapour passes through only partially condensed ; 
for Chittoor, which is at the western gorge of the Palghat gap, has only 68 inches of 
rain and Shenkotah only 48 inches; both however have rain in every month of the 
year, excepting February at Chittoor, and in the month of November, at both places, 
there was only one fall of rain. The paucity of rain at Palamcottah, General Cullen 
attributes to the intercepting of the vapour of the western monsoon by the table lands 
of Travancore. But this does not explain the paucity of rain at Cape Comorin and 
Vaurioor, which are open to both monsoons; and why should they not be deluged at 
least by the S.W. monsoon as well as Allepy or Cochin? 
General Cullen made the observations which I have adverted to without a view to 
the illustration of any particular meteorological phases or phenomena ; but observing 
the publication in the annual volume of the Association of the extraordinary fall of 
rain at high elevations, as at Mahabuleshwur and Merkara, he was induced to ascer- 
tain whether a similar fact obtained on the high lands of Travancore. He therefore, 
on the 23rd of June 1844, established a pluviometer at a spot called Uttree Mullay. 
thirty miles E.N.E. of Trevandrum, at an elevation of 4600 feet above the sea 
(about that of Mahabuleshwur), and continued his observations simultaneously with 
others at Trevandrum and Quilon on the coast until the end of December. The fall 
of rain on the table land was 164 inches, while the fall at Trevandrum and Quilon 
respectively was only 36 and 363 inches. The variation of the monthly mean tem- 
perature at Uttree Mullay was only from 64° to 67° Fahr., and at Trevandrum from 
772° to 782° Fahr. 
Temperature. Rain. 
Uttree Mullay, | Trevandrum, | Uttree Mullay, | Trevandrum, Quilon, 
4600 feet. 130 feet. 4600 feet. 130 feet. 30 feet. 
1844, TEE A. A oe : 
June 23 to 30 66 78h 73 Y3 
July <..ccusccess 67 78 263 53 
August.......+ 64 782 23 63 
September ... 66 783 24 
October ...... 66 784 41% 14 
November ... 65 774 363 3} 
December ... 64 78 23 3+ 
Total...... 653 78k 164 36 
