110 DR MILLER ON THE METEOROLOGY OF 
a mountain, as 2000 feet, is lower, and the condensation and precipitation of the 
warm oceanic vapour will be more rapid and copious, than at an equal height in 
the surrounding atmosphere. 
On the other hand, when a Pluviometer is merely removed from a lower to a 
higher position i the atmosphere, as from the bottom to the top of a building, the 
quantity of rain is found to diminish with the elevation. Thus, the gauge on the 
tower of St James’s Church, Whitehaven, on an average of 10 years, has received 
12:1 inches, or 28 per cent. less rain than a precisely similar instrument stationed 
in a garden, near to and on the same level with the base of the building. 
The explanation seems to be, that as in most heavy and continuous rains, the 
whole atmosphere up to a great height is charged with and precipitates vapour, 
the drops are enlarged by accretion after leaving the summit of the tower. It is 
only during heavy showers, when the drops are formed at a great altitude, that 
the upper gauge is in excess. In this case, the drops have probably been sub- 
jected to evaporation in passing through the comparatively warm and dry stratum 
of air intervening between the two instruments. 
Among the mountain chains of the Indian Peninsula, Colonel Syxes finds the 
maximum fall of rain at 4500 feet, and that above this level the supply is 
diminished. The following tables and remarks are extracted from Colonel Syxzs’s 
valuable ‘‘ Discussion of Meteorological Observations taken in India,” published 
in the Philosophical Transactions, Part ii., for 1850. 
Fall of Rain at various Heights in India. (Western Coast.) 
Inches. 
Mean of Seven Stations on Western Coast, at Sea level, : 9 81-70 
At 150 feet, Rutnagherry, in the Konkun, 5 : 5 “ 114-55 
900 ... Dapoolee, Southern Konkun, . : 3 134-96 
... 1740 ... Kundalla, the Pass from Bombay to Poona, 0 : 141-59 
... 4500 ... Mahabuleshwur, mean of 15 years, Z 3 : 254-05 
+ 4500 ... Mercara, in Coorg, mean of 3 years, . 3 R 143-35 
... 4500 ... Uttray Mullay, Travancore, mean of 2 years, i 263°21 
.. 6100 ... Kotergherry, on the Neelgherries, 1 year, - 5 81-71 
.. 8640 ... Dodabetta, highest point of Western India, 1 year, 101-24 
Uttray Mullay Range—for 1849. 
Inches. 
At 500 feet, Base of range, ; 5 : - 4 - 99 
.. 2200 ... Attagherry, : - ¢ 5 is c 170 
- 4500 ... Uttray Mullay, . : ‘ : 4 , 250 
. 6200 .... Agusta Peak c 5 4 194 
Shewing at 6200 feet, 46 inches less rain than at 4500 feet.* 
[The greatest depth at Mahabuleshwur in 21 years, was 338-38 inches, in 1849; 
* From returns recently published by Dr Burst of Bombay, it appears that in Eastern Inpra 
also, the maximum deposit of rain is found at 4500 feet, at which elevation, the annual quantity 
amounts (at Cheerapoong) to no less than 610 inches!! At Sylhet, 5000 feet above sea level, the 
fall is 209 inches; and, at Dar rjecling, at 7000 feet, it is 125 inches. At Bombay, on an average of 
30 years, the minal rain fall is 76°08 inches, and at Caleutta and Madras, for 8 years, it is 66°59 
and 52°27 inches, respectively. 
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