1 18 H. F. Blanford — Rainfall 6f the Garnatic. [April, 



nn examination of the figures as I have described, is the negative one, 

 that they cannot be accepted as supplying any evidence in support of 

 the views put forward by Dr. Hunter." 



In 1877, another key-note was struck simultaneously or nearly so 

 by Mr. Douglas Archibald and Mr. S. A. Hill. The former in a letter 

 to the Englishman, which was afterwards noticed in Nature, pointed out 

 that the winter rainfall of Calcutta is marked by a distinct periodicity, 

 and of the opposite character to that supposed to be shewn by the 

 Madras rainfall registers ; the maximum rainfall occurring during the 

 years of minimum sun-spots and the minimum rainfall during the years 

 of maximum sun-spots. The latter in a report on the rainfall of the 

 N. W. Provinces addressed to the Government of the N. W. Provinces, 

 noticed that the registers seemed to lend some support to the theory 

 that underlying very great irregular and non-periodic variations, there is 

 a fluctuation of the total annual rainfall coinciding approximately with 

 that of sun-spot frequency, and further that the winter rains of Northern 

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

 mean than when the summer rains are excessive. These three ideas 

 were further brought to the test and worked out with a more definite 

 result, in a paper published by Mr. Hill in 1879 in the Indian Meteoro- 

 logical Memoir. The final conclusions were that " The winter rains are 

 heaviest when the summer rains are defective, and vice versa. " That 

 " the maximum of wduter rainfall appeared to be reached rather more 

 than a year before the minimum of sun-spots and the minimum rain- 

 fall to coincide with or follow the maximum of sun-spots, at about an 

 equal interval." 



With regard to the rainfall Mr. Hill concluded that there is an 

 eleven-year cycle but of a different character, the maximum being 

 reached about 4 years after the sun-spot maximum and the minimum 

 three years later. His figures shew, however, that this minimum is 

 followed by a rise and then by another minimum as great as the first or 

 nearly so, the intervening year corresponding to that of minimum sun- 

 spots. 



Nearly eight years have elapsed since the latest of these notices was 

 published, and meanwhile further data have been steadily accumulating. 

 Recently in the course of a searching enquiry into all the facts of the 

 distribution of the Indian rainfall and its vicissitudes, I have had occa- 

 sion to go again over all the ground surveyed in the writings I hav<3 

 referred to, and very much more in addition, I have done so with due 

 regard to the cautionary monitions of General Strachey, and with results 

 so distinct as to leave but little doubt on my mind that we have really to 

 do with a cyclical variation very distinct in character and of such mag- 



