24 Meteorological Observations. [Jan. 



the winds, and aspect of the sky ; and as such regularity prevails in 

 atmospherical phenomena within the tropics, there is no occasion for 

 further delay in presenting our readers with a summary of the results, 

 adding a few observations and comparisons with such other registers of 

 Oriental climates as are within our reach. Meteorology is now attract- 

 ing more and more attention in Europe. Societies have been established 

 for its exclusive cultivation in some countries, and more recently at 

 Paris, a " correspondance pour l'avancement de la meteorologie" has 

 been undertaken by M. Morin, who not only hopes to frame a com- 

 plete " histoire du terns" for the whole world, but even eventually to 

 be able to predict the future weather of any climate from accurate 

 analysis of the effects of past seasons : towards this laborious undertak- 

 ing Mons. Morin invites assistance from all those who are in the habit 

 of recording their observations, and we with pleasure give circulation to 

 his proposals, in return for the copy of his Essays on Meteorology, with 

 which he has kindly favored, us : but we should rather recommend, 

 [for our own sakes, no less than to save labour to M. Morin himself,] 

 that our pages should in the first instance be made the medium of his 

 Indian correspondence ; and we further recommend, that the tables with 

 which we may be favored may be abstracted by observers in a conve- 

 nient form for reference and comparison, such perhaps as we have pre- 

 pared on the present occasion, to exemplify the climate of Calcutta. We 

 hope hereafter to lay before our readers some extracts from the essays of 

 M. Morin ; they abound in curious remarks upon the phenomena, which 

 he has professedly engaged to study, not only from nature, but from 

 written authorities in all the current languages of Europe, nay even from 

 the Chinese manuscript of Yone-ling, the Daniel of the celestial empire, 

 now under translation by M. Brosset, which besides meteorological facts 

 " contient encore beaucoup d'autres choses curieuses." 



But the object of the present paper is to exhibit a tabular view of 

 the climate of Bengal, from the registers already published in detail. 

 These registers have been purely instrumental, for asM. Morin remarks, 

 there are two modes of observing the weather, one by means of fixed 

 instruments, the other by a continual log-book of ocular observations 

 on the formation and dispersion of clouds, force and direction of winds, 

 influence of the ground, hills, water ; of storms, lightning, aurorae, and 

 so forth. In this department, our registers are perhaps deficient, but 

 the regularity of our seasons is such, that there is not the same interest 

 in watching the sky as in the ever-changeable tropics : it is no difficult 

 matter here to predict the course of seasons, and the occurrence of 

 occasional gales and north-westers is almost the only phenomenon not 

 restricted to stated periods in the revolution of our Indian year. 



