( 10 ) 



I have little experience of the roluy season in Pegu. Towards the close of April, or in 

 the first days of May, gales, occasionally of extreme violence, are experienced, usually accom- 

 panied by heavy showers. It is this period which I may point out as the most favourable, 

 although at the same time the most unhealthy one, to a botanist in Pegu. The amount of 

 old trees, branches, etc. thrown down during such a tempest is often astounding, offering an 

 easy and fruitful harvest of specimens of woody plants otherwise quite out of reach on account 

 of their height. It is true, that at other seasons, apes, and more especially squirrels, are 

 most useful agents for procuring the flowers or fruits of lofty trees, where a gun fails to 

 secure a branch, but it is rarely that one can just guess at the time when such trees are in a 

 stage of development attractive to the animals just mentioned. 



The temperature of course at this season rapidly falls at the very commencement of the 

 rains, the thermometer indicating to me (in May and June) from 70 to 75 before sunrise, 

 to 90 to 95 in the shade at the hottest time of the day (about 1 p. m.). There was not a day 

 without rain. The annual rain-fall is said to amount at Rangoon to about 85 inches, but in 

 the Prome district the climate of which resembles in every respect that of Ava it is cer- 

 tainly considerably less, and further to the north, at Mandalay, the rain-fall is in some yeara 

 insufficient for the cultivation of rice. As a contrast to this, the annual rain-fall in Tenas- 

 serim amounts at Moulmein to 175, and at Tavoy to 208, inches. 



The prevailing winds in Pegu are, of course, the monsoon winds, modified, however, so 

 much by the hilly configuration of the country, that they are traceable only on the summit 

 of the higher hill ranges. The whole southern part of Pegu, including the Irrawaddi and 

 Sittang deltas, is exposed to a steady sea-breeze, usually setting in about midday and felt 

 far inland. In the Irrawaddi plains, however, this sea-breeze is soon (above Henzadah ?) 

 checked during the hot season by a. dry North West wind, which is probably only a North 

 East monsoon wind modified in its course by the Arracan Yomah 7000 to 8000 feet high, 

 that separates Arracan from Ava. Hence it is that the valley of the Irrawaddi is so much 

 drier than that of the Sittang, which is sheltered on the north by hill ranges of upwards of 

 6000 feet elevation. 



From the above fragmentary and necessarily confused notes, it is clear that the climate 

 of Pegu is in every respect far superior to that of Bengal. All the year round with a few 

 days' exception cool refreshing nights prevail. The cold season in Pegu, although of a 

 slightly higher temperature, has one thing in its favour, and that is, the absence of 

 musquitoes. 



Postscriptum. 



Since the submission of this report, the meteorological observations alluded to in my 

 remarks at page 8, have, with the exception of the hygrometrical observations, come to hand. 

 After perusal of these tables, I see no reason to modify any of my statements regarding the 

 climate of Pegu, as made in the foregoing pages, except as to the direction of the wind in the 

 Irrawaddi valley. Dr. Hanks says that, during the hot and rainy seasons, winds generally 

 come from the south and south-west, during other months from the north and north-west, and 

 the observations of Dr. White and others confirm this. 



My thermometrical observations were chiefly taken inland, where the temperature is 

 necessarily somewhat higher than along the course of large streams, where evaporation, espe- 

 cially in closed valleys, reduces thermometrical readings. 



I give here an abstract of the records placed at my disposal, but in doing so, I must men- 

 tion, that some of them have to be taken with caution. Not to mention the discrepancy that 

 may be observed in the elevation of the stations (Thayet Myo being put at two hundred and 

 forty feet only, while Prome, situated some thirty miles further down the stream, is two hun- 

 dred and sixty feet), there are items which call for remark. At one station the observations 

 were made for six months by means of " an old metal thermometer condemned," while the mini- 

 mum, e. g. at Henzadah, is considerably higher* than the mean temperature of December and 

 February. The observations of Suaygyeen I consider quite unreliable, representing a climate 

 with occasional snow-fall and freezing, were it not for the odd minimum 10 degrees higher 

 than the mean temperature of the hottest month of that station (April, 76). The Eaugoon 

 observations form a contrast to this, shewing a clime hotter than that of Sinde or the 

 Punjab 1 



The observations of annual means of the hygrometrical state of the atmosphere and barome- 

 tric pressure 1 have omitted here, these being of no value in the consideration of vegetation, 

 where only monthly means and extremes come into account. 



* This can only be explained by assuming that the readings were taken from a minimum and maximum 

 thermometer, while the ordinary observations took place possibly at a later hour, say at 9 A. M. But in this case, 

 such minima ought to be brought into account in the computations of mean temperature. 



