150 On the Fall of Rain at Patna. [Feb. 



On the Fall of Rain at Patna. — By C. E. Ravenshaw, Esq. C. S. 

 I have the pleasure to enclose, for record in the Meteorological De- 

 partment of the Society, an abstract of the quantity of rain which has 

 fallen at Patna during the last 5f years. It may prove useful to some 

 future Meteorologist who may be desirous of inquiring into the gene- 

 ral distribution of rain throughout the extent of India, and of com- 

 paring the quantities which fall in different localities. Both the climate 

 and vegetable productions of a country must very much depend upon 

 the quantity of rain which annually waters its surface, and such data 

 as that now afforded cannot, therefore, be altogether uninteresting 

 in an agricultural and horticultural point of view. The observations 

 have been made by myself with an English pluviometer placed near the 

 ground, and I have every reason to believe that the result is a near 

 approximation to the truth. It will be observed that the average of 5 

 whole years, including the rainy and dry seasons, is 36.65. I regret 

 that I shall be unable to bring the observations down to the end of 

 the present dry season, as I am about to leave India. The late rainy 

 season was a very heavy one (43.48) and when the results of the 

 whole year shall be added to those of the preceding 5 years, it is pro- 

 bable that the average of the whole 6 years will be about* 38.18. The 

 average of 13 years in Calcutta is given in one of the Almanacs at 58 

 inches, and the average of 5 or 6 years at Delhi was stated in the 

 papers sometime ago at 24. The average of Patna is therefore some- 

 thing less than the meanf between the two extremes of the Bengal Pre- 

 sidency. As the monsoon commences in the Bay of Bengal and 

 travels westward, following generally the course of the Ganges towards 



* 43.48 Rainy Season of 1847-48. 

 2.35 Average of 4 dry seasons. 



45 83 

 18324 



Total of 5 



whole years. 



6)229.07 





38.18 



average of 6 years. 



+ Calcutta, 

 Delhi,,... 



58 

 24 





2)82 





Patna, 



41 

 38 





Difference, 



3 





