Meteorological Observations. 43 



experience enables me to make, to which I hope you will 

 append your observations on those points which I am unable 

 to explain. 



The study of meteorological phenomena is a subject which 

 has been too much neglected in India, where there are so 

 many with infinite leisure to procure the most valuable re- 

 sults. 



The power of solar radiation, the structure and changes 

 of clouds, their electrical state, the number of strata they 

 form in the air, the elevation of these beds, the changes 

 in the air which produce the sensation of cold, and that 

 closeness vulgarly called " muggy,"* and the causes of hazi- 

 ness in the air, are all subjects on which very little is still 

 known, and in which the philosopher will find ample inter- 

 est. Having had frequent opportunities, for long periods, 

 of observing the clearness of the atmosphere from an eleva- 

 ted station, I must beg to differ with you on the sufficiency of 

 the cause which you have suggested to account for the hazi- 

 ness of the air at times. In the plains of Bengal it is cer- 

 tainly probable that dust may assist in obscuring the air, 

 but in parts of South India where rocks and jungle prevail, 

 and little or no dust could be raised by the highest wind, 

 this haziness of the atmosphere at certain periods is still 

 found to prevail.f The cause of this has escaped my pene- 



* The sensation of cold not only depends upon habit, but also on 

 the degree of evaporation from the body, and also perhaps on the 

 electrical state of the air, which probably produces that " creeping of 

 the skin" produced by a change of weather, so well known to those who 

 have suffered much from " hill fever." 



f We must have all Captain Campbell's observations before us, before 

 we can ascribe the haze in southern India to causes, different from those 

 on which it has been found to depend not only in India, but in other 

 quarters. We should know the force and direction of the winds, and 

 changes they are liable to in these respects, and how far these are con- 

 nected with corresponding changes in the atmosphere. It is impos- 

 sible to fix a limit to the distance to which light earthy particles may be 



