VI H. F. Blanford— ne Theory of the Winter [No, li 



year, tlie rule of increasing dryness with increasing distance from the 

 coast holds good inland, only as far as Behar ; and thence to the Punjab 

 the relative humidity of the atmosphere increases steadily. It appears 

 to be higher also through Central India, north of the Satpuras, but the 

 meteorological statistics of this tract have not yet been sufficiently 

 worked out to enable us to fix the limits of the area of higher winter 

 humidity." 



The above passage was written in 1876, only a year after the 

 meteorological data for the whole of India had been, for the first time, 

 concentrated in one central office, and when the system of observation 

 had been but recently extended to many stations in Rajputana and 

 Central India. It is, therefore, desirable to set forth, in a tabular form, 

 some excerpts from the further evidence which has since been put on 

 record ; and, to this end, I give, in the following tables, first, the absolute 

 humidity of the afr as represented by the proportion of vapour in 1,000 

 parts (volumes) of air, second, the relative humidity, and, third, the 

 cloud proportion (in thousandths of the sky-expanse*) in each of the 

 six months November to April for four series of stations, three passing 

 successively from east to west (or north-west) and representing re- 

 spectively the Himalaya, the alluvial plain, and the plateau which extends 

 between the latter and the Satpura range ; and the fourth passing from 

 south to north, beginning with stations south of the Satpura range, 

 and terminating in the Punjab. 



* The figures of the two latter tables are extracted from those of the arerage 

 values of the several meteorological elements given in the Report on the Meteo- 

 rology of India in 1881. 



