AND METEOROLOGV OF DUKHUN. 193 



30° to 65* ! ! There are some circumstances in the appearance of dew in Dukhun 

 militating against Dr. Wells's theory of its formation ; but more extended and care- 

 ful observations may possibly show that they resulted from peculiar combinations 

 not affecting his broad principles ; and some of the anomalies may be traced to the 

 different power of radiation of heat in different soils. 



Fogs are certainly of rare occurrence in the Desh or open country within the limits 

 of my researches, although along the Ghats they prevail for six months in the year. 

 In the Desh they are only seen in the months of October, November, December, Ja- 

 nuary and February, and then only for a few mornings. By 9^ a.m. they are uniformly 

 dissipated. In 1826 the first record of a fog was on the 8th of October, which was 

 confined to the banks of the river at Poona. The same occurred on the 15th, 21st, 

 and 31st. On the 18th of November of the same year there was a thick fog at Beh- 

 loondeh, on the meridian of Ahmednuggur. On the 17th of January 1827 a thick 

 fog occurred at Poona, which continued until 9 J a.m. On the 31st of the same month, 

 and on the 1st of February, there was a partial fog until 9^ a.m. At Pairgaon, on the 

 Beema river, on the 29th of November 1827, there was a partial fog until 9^ a.m. 

 On the 31st of December, at the junction of the Beema and Seena rivers, and ex- 

 tending to Wangee, ten miles up the Seena, there was a remarkable fog in a stratum 

 a few feet thick, lying close to the ground, its upper surface being quite fiat, and not 

 corresponding to the inequalities of the country. In consequence it frequently oc- 

 curred, that in passing over slight rises on horseback, I had my head above the fog, 

 while my body was enveloped in it. My view ranged over a sea of mist, and trees 

 and houses appeared to spring from a sheet of water, the surface of which reflected 

 prismatic colours. On the 3rd of October 1828, at Poona, a slight fog occurred; a 

 heavy fog on the 6th, and the same on the 21st. On the 23rd and 24th of November 

 also, at Poona, there was a thick fog. It was during one of these fogs at Poona that 

 I witnessed a white rainbow. I had mounted my horse shortly after daybreak in pro- 

 secution of my accustomed ride, and galloped a few miles towards the east. Suddenly 

 I found myself emerge from the fog, which terminated abruptly in a wall some hun- 

 dred feet high. Shortly after sunrise I turned my horse's head homewards, and was 

 surprised to discover, in the mural termination of the fog-bank, a perfect rainbow, 

 defined in its outline, but destitute of prismatic colours. As the sun rose, the bow 

 and fog-bank disappeared. Niebuhr, in his Voyage to Africa, describes a white rain- 

 bow ; and Mr. St, John, in his Lives of Celebrated Travellers, mentions having seen 

 one, on the 21st of May 1830, in Normandy, on " the morning mist*." 



At Poona, on the 12th and 22nd of October 1829, fog until 7 a.m. and 8 a.m. ; 23rd 

 of October, partial fog. In 1830 there is not any notice of fog. — Such are my 

 records of fogs in five years in the Desh, amounting only to nineteen times occur- 

 rence. 



In the hilly tracts, and along the line of the Ghats, they have been much more 



* Vol. iii. p. 121, 

 MDCCCXXXV. 2 C 



