XXXUl 



forty or fifty feet, in India the case is reversed. The differ- 

 ence is slight, but the upper gauge receives more than the 

 lower one. 



As regards the "Wind nothing very definite can yet be 

 pronounced, in consequence of the imperfect instrumental 

 registration employed, which has rendered the past observ- 

 ations scarcely worthy of reduction. It is however certain 

 that the prevalent notion as to the force of the wind in the 

 tropics is a vastly exaggerated one, and that the daily average 

 of pressure or velocity is much less than in England. The 

 general laws as to direction are so strongly marked as to be 

 evident to the most casual observer of natural phenomena. 

 The north-east monsoon, heralded by heavy rain, sets in 

 about the end of October, and blows pretty steadily, but not 

 strongly except during ' accidental gales, until February. 

 South and south-east winds prevail from then until May, 

 in which month some of the most violent storms on record 

 have occurred. The long but mild four months' reign of the 

 South-west monsoon then becomes fairly established. The 

 scorching westerly or land winds, which blow in the fore- 

 noon in May, are relieved by a refreshing sea breeze, which, 

 commencing about noon, continues until evening. The gene- 

 ral tendency of the wind when changing, is, to veer round 

 in a direct order, i. e. following the course of the Sun, or 

 E. S. W. N. E. During rough or unsettled weather this 

 order is reversed, being retrogade, or E. N. "W. 8. E. ; and 

 frequent instances might be adduced, when with calm fine 

 weather at Madras, rain and stormy weather within one or 

 two hundred miles distance, has been plainly indicated, by 

 no other mark than a retrogade change in the direction of 

 the wind. 



N. E. POGSON, 



Qovernment Astronomer. 



