1884.] Tlie Himalaya Snowfall and Dry Winds in India. 3 



(e.) A branch to the substance of the thalmus. 



(/.) The direct sensitive band joining the posterior third of the 

 posterior limb of the inner capsule. 



(g.) A large mass of fibres which runs between the Island of . Reil 

 and the tip of the occipital lobe. 



10. In the evolution of the brain it seems very probable that the 

 functions of the thalamus and corpora quadrigemina as optic centres 

 are transferred in man and certain mammals in great part to the 

 cerebral cortex. 



11. The cortical fibres which I have described are probably not all 

 connected with visual centres, but are one means by which motor and 

 other centres of the cortex are educated, and their function elicited 

 in response to visual stimuli. 



II. " On the Connexion of the Himalaya Snowfall with Dry 

 Winds and Seasons of Drought in India." By HENRY F. 

 BLANFORD, F.R.S. Received April 14, 1884. 



The present paper, as regards its subject-matter though not in 

 form, is part of a general investigation of the rainfall of India, which 

 has occupied much of my spare time for some years past, and the 

 results of which are already partly embodied in a memoir which I 

 hope, in the course of a few months, to issue as an official publication 

 of the Indian Meteorological Office. The idea that the snowfall of 

 the Himalaya exercises a direct and important influence on the dry 

 land winds of North-Western India is not now put forward for the 

 first time. It has been the subject of frequent reference in the 

 annual reports on the meteorology of India since 1876, as well as 

 elsewhere ; and in a report on the administration of the India Meteo- 

 rological Department lately issued, I summarised very briefly those 

 points in the experience of the previous five years which have seemed 

 to justify its provisional adoption as a basis for forecasting the 

 probable character of the monsoon rains. 



Relying on this experience, in the month of June last, I put 

 forward in the Government Gazette, a nota giving warning of the 

 probability of a prolonged period of drought in the approaching 

 monsoon season, and the result, if not in exact accordance with the 

 terms of the forecast, has been so far confirmatory of the general 

 idea, as to induce me to put the facts of past experience formally on 

 record, and thereby challenge attention to the subject. If I am right 

 in the inference that the varying extent and thickness of the 

 Himalayan snows exercise a great and prolonged influence on the 

 climatic conditions and weather of the plains of North-Western India, 



B 2 



