Notices respecting New Books. 65 



Under the head of Publications we find the results obtained by 

 the Meteorological Department of India will be published in two 

 serial forms — an ' Annual Report on the Meteorology of India,' 

 and ' Indian Meteorological Memoirs.' the part of which about to 

 be issued will contain : — 



1st. On the Winds of Calcutta. 



2nd. On the Climate and Meteorology of Kashghar and Yarkand. 



3rd. On the Diurnal Variation of the Barometric Pressure at 

 Simla. 



The Eeport on the Meteorology of India is a folio of 386 pages, 

 297 being occupied with tables of results obtained at 87 stations. 

 These comprise Solar Eadiation, Terrestrial Eadiation, Air-tempera- 

 ture, Atmospheric Pressure, Anemometry, Hygrometry, Cloud-pro- 

 portion, and Rainfall. The second paragraph of the introductory 

 portion of this Eeport indicates in so lucid a manner the connexion 

 of Meteorology with Physical Geography, and is of itself sufficient 

 to exhibit the spirit in which Mr. Blanford has undertaken the work, 

 that we quote it in extenso : — 



"Asa field for the advantageous study of Physical Meteorology, 

 India stands pre-eminent — in virtue not only of the intensity and 

 variety of the phenomena it presents, but also of their intimate 

 localization in a circumscribed arena. Isolated on the north by the 

 gigantic mountain-range, which presents an impassable obstacle to 

 any interchange of the lower half of the atmosphere with that of 

 the regions beyond, and bathed on two sides by an ocean which 

 stretches away without a break to the margin of the Antarctic land, 

 it affords an almost unique example of the contrasted conditions of 

 land and water, of continent and ocean, of great extent, yet for the 

 most part accessible and uncomplicated by influences of unknown 

 origin and uncertain magnitude. At the same time situated half 

 within and half without the tropics, its southern extremity traversed 

 by the terrestrial equator of heat, and dominated during five months 

 of the year by a vertical sun, it receives in its greatest intensity the 

 solar heat which is the source of all meteorological action ; and yet 

 again so vast is its extent, and so varied are the physico-geographical 

 characteristics of its different parts, that it exhibits within itself at 

 one and the same moment extreme examples of the most opposite 

 effects of that energy in the parching heat of the Scindian deserts 

 and the torrential rains of the Ghats and of Eastern Bengal." 



It is thus with a view of unfolding the laws of the physical inter- 

 dependence of Meteorological phenomena with the geographical 

 features of a country, that Mr. Blanford has undertaken and effec- 

 tively carried out the duty intrusted to him. A considerable por- 

 tion of the introductory matter of this first annual volume consists 

 of a most interesting and valuable sketch of the Physical Geography 

 of India and its Dependencies, followed by a description of the 

 physical characteristics of the Meteorological staions. The author 

 then enters upon a careful discussion of the observations obtained in 

 1875, under the heads above mentioned. 



We cannot take leave of this most interesting volume without 

 Phil. Mag. S. 5. Vol. 5. No. 28. Jan. 1878. F 



