1884.] Himalaya Snowfall with Drought in India. 5 



winds, the temperature, and the pressure equally testify. That it 

 was so seems not improbable." 



The report containing these passages was written in the autumn 

 of 1877, a second season of drought ; but, in this year, most intense 

 in the North-Western Provinces and the plateau of Bajputana and 

 Central India, which provinces were swept persistently, up to the 

 very close of the summer monsoon season, by parching land winds 

 from the north-west and west. In the passage immediately following 

 the above quotation, this fact was noticed in the following terms : 

 " In the early part of the present season (1877) the same phenomenon 

 (an unusual snowfall) was repeated, and with even greater intensity, 

 and this year the land winds have been so persistent in the upper 

 provinces, and on the plateau south of the Ganges, as to cause an 

 almost complete failure of the summer rains in that region ; while 

 again, those of Bengal have been up to the fall of an average 

 season." And in a postscript to the report was given an extract 

 from Colonel (now General) J. P. Walker's report on the operations 

 of the Great Trigonometrical Survey, viz., a passage taken from the 

 narrative report of Mr. E. C. Byall, in charge of the Kumaon and 

 Garhwal party of the Togographical Survey. It is as follows : " The 

 winter of 1876-1877 proved to be the severest known for many years 

 past among these hills ; the spring was wet and cold, and felt quite 

 wintry (The wet weather) continued with few inter- 

 missions till the 8th June, the most noticeable break, up to that 



time, being from the 9th April up to the 17th Mountains 



which in ordinary years had their snow-line, at the end of April, at 

 an elevation of 12,000 feet above sea-level, were mantled with snow 

 down to 9,000 feet, and valleys which, at that time of year, used to be 

 clear of all snow up to 10,000 feet, were literally choked with snow 

 down io 6,000 feet ; this accumulation in the valleys being caused 

 by snowdrifts and avalanches from the mountain sides." 



Messrs. Hill and Archibald's Law. Meantime evidence of a very 

 important character bearing on the subject in hand, was brought to 

 light from a different quarter. Shortly before the above report was 

 completed and sent to press, Mr. Douglas Archibald* and Mr. J. A. 

 [ill,f in discussing the rainfall of certain stations in Northern India 

 connexion with the periodical sun-spot variation, a question 

 attracting much interest at the time, had independently arrived at a 

 inclusion which, although reached from a very different starting 

 Dint and empirical in form, obviously tended to confirm the view 

 ibove set forth, and indeed, seemed to find its rational explanation 

 in that view. This was that " the winter rains of Northern India 

 are generally heavier when the total fall of the year is below the 



* " Nature," vol. rvi, p. 339. 



f Keport to the North-Wea f , Provinces Government. 



