TEMPERATURE AND RAIN IN BENGAL. 255 
soon of 1851 at Cherraponjie, and kept a separate record : 50 feet 10inches depth 
of water may be said to have fallen chiefly in 7 months, for in November and 
December there was not a shower ; inJanuary only 3of an inch, in February 3-05 
in., and in March 1d inch. The S.W. monsoon would appear to commence in 
April with 67 in., followed by 115°15 in May, 147-20 in June, 99°40 in July, 
103-9 in August, 71:7 in September, and 40°3 in October; so that the vapour 
from the south passed over Chittagong, and little of it was condensed until it 
reached Cherraponjie and the Cossya hills. But the discrepancy in the fall 
in the neighbourhood of Cherraponjie itself is not the least remarkable cir- 
cumstance. Sylhet, which lies below Cherraponjie 23 miles to the S. of it, 
and only 7 miles to the W., had only 209-85 in. of rain; the fall at the prox- 
imate places differing 400°5 in. The greatest fall in any month at Sylhet was 
43°35 im May. The explanation of this extraordinary fall at Cherraponjie is 
in the physical circumstances connected with its location. The station is on 
the Cossya hills, at 4500 feet above the sea, facing the south; and the vapour 
from the Bay of Bengal, floating at a height of about 4500 feet, passes over the 
plains of the Deltas of the Ganges and Brahmapootra, and first impinges upon 
the Cossya hills, and is immediately condensed by the lower temperature at the 
hills ; and then comparatively little of the vapour reaches the higher regions, 
as is the case in the Western Ghauts of India, where the maximum condensa- 
tion takes place also at about 4500 feet. This is shown at Darjeeling, 1500 
feet above Cherraponjie, 134 miles to the N., and 3° of longitude to the W. 
of Cherraponjie, the fall being only 125-20 in.; and yet rain fell in every 
month of the year, the maximum fall being 31 in. in June. The rain-tables 
are not complete for Simla at 7500 feet, but the maximum fall in the mon- 
soon months was only 17:95 in. in July and 11°65 in August, the most rainy 
months; so that there can be no question but that the fall does net exceed that 
at Darjeeling, and we have then the fact that those stations so widely separated 
in India as Simla, Darjeeling and Dodabetta on the Neilgherries, at about an 
elevation above the sea of from 7000 to 8400 feet, have about the same 
amount of rain-fall ; while the lower elevations of 4500 feet in the peninsula 
of India have the maximum fall, ranging from 300 to 600 inches. It will scarcely 
be desirable to make further comment upon the rain-tables; but it may be 
stated generally, that as the latitude is increased, and westing made, from Cal- 
cutta the mean annual fall appears to decrease, the fall at Ferozepore being as 
low as 23 in. ; but the discrepancies in the fall in neighbouring localities con- 
tinue, as is manifest in the case of Goruckpore, lat. 26° 3/, long. 83° 13/, 
having 61°70 in., Azimghur, 42 miles south and 9 miles east, having only 
39°96in. The rain-tables from the Punjab are incomplete. 
The above meteorological observations suggest to us to be cautious in ge- 
neralizing from local facts, not less with regard to temperatures and falls of 
rain, than on the supposed law fixing a fall of one degree of Fahrenheit for a 
_ certain number of feet of ascent into the atmosphere. 
