APPENDIX XXX 
at intervals, however, by showers; it afterwards prevails only in the night, and in the 
early part of the forenoon, when during the remainder of the day its place is supplied 
by the S.E. or sea breeze. 
About a month or more before the change of the monsoon and commencement of the 
rains, the wind is variable, with calms and a sultry and oppressive state of the atmosphere. 
I have given the average times of the commencement of the monsoons; but there 
are considerable variations in a stated period of years; in the interval under review, for 
example, the N.E. monsoon and rains set in one year as early as the 29th September ; 
and another year as late as the beginning of November. The land wind also has com- 
menced at one time as early as the end of April, and has kept off at another time till 
the beginning of June. Respecting the state of the atmosphere, the results of these 
meteorological observations shew it is not quite so clear and serene as is commonly sup- 
posed ; the mean of twenty-six years, giving us during the sun’s revolution, only one 
hundred and eighty clear days; the remainder of the year is made up of sixty-four days 
clear in some part of the twenty-four hours, and the other part cloudy or hazy: of 
ninety-six cloudy days, and twenty-five hazy ; there are also during the year fifty-seven, 
on which rain falls; thirty-one, when there is a dew, and only eighteen with lightning. 
The following statement, being the mean of the details of the weather in the diary for 
the foregoing period of twenty-six years, shews how this state of the atmosphere was 
divided among the different months. This was constructed from a great mass of detail : 
MONTHS. Clear. Cloudy. | Hazy. Hee Rain. Dew. |Lightning. 
Cloudy. 
Days. Days. Days. Days Days. Days. Days. 
January AO 50 20 6 1 4 1 7 _ 
February st Ae 24 1 1 2 —_— 9 == 
March aed + 27 1 —_ i fe 7 = 
April ye Ne 24 2 1 Sit wily eat 2 2 
May .. Be ote 19 4 2 6 | 2 — 4 
June .. “3 be 8 11 2 9 6 -- 3 
July .. aa bc 6 13 5 7 tal 8 2 
August ve Be 8 12 3 8 7 = 2 
September .. 63] 9 10 4 7 7. — 3 
October tes ae 11 12 3 5 10 2 2 
November .. # 11 13 2 Al al? 9 2 == 
December .. Fe 13 11 1 Curie 26 2 —_— 
= | aes ss 
Annually by the Mean 180 96 25 64 57 31 18 
The climate of Madras is generally healthy, and the thermometer during the hot 
season, not higher than at most other parts of the coast, nor indeed so high as at some 
