284 INDIAN METEOROLOGY. 



The reorganisation of the department, which was sanctioned on 

 the lines suggested by Mr. Blanford, involved : — 



1. A redistribution of the observatories, and the provision of 

 suitable additional stations. Except under some special conditions, 

 it was proposed to arrange as uniform a distribution of the obser- 

 vations as the circumstances of the country would admit of. 



2. The rendering the data from all observatories comparable 

 inter se and also with those of known standards. To accomplish this, 

 a rigorous comparison of the instruments was requisite, uniformity 

 in the mode of their exposure and methods of reduction, and a 

 knowledge of the surroundings of each station. 



3. The establishment of one or two observatories of a higher 

 class in the interior as well as on the coasts of India, to furnish 

 detailed and continuous registers, and also serve as depots for 

 verifying instruments, training observers for the minor stations, &c. 



4. To more effectually supervise the work of all observatories, 

 by relieving the local reporters of a large part of their former 

 duties, which were henceforth to be undertaken by the General 

 Department. Also to provide an additional local reporter for 

 Western India. 



5. To bring together the materials furnished by the observatories 

 in all parts of India, and, as far as possible, from adjacent regions, 

 for the purpose of discussion and publication, and this with the 

 least possible delay. 



The number of observatories was to be raised to 95, eight of the 

 former observatories being abolished and 22 new stations being 

 established. 



The whole were divided into three classes, as follows : — 



I. Three first-class observatories, at Calcutta, Allahabad, and 

 Lahore, in addition to the Madras and Colaba observatories, which 

 were to remain under the independent management of their own 

 superintendents. These new observatories were to be furnished 

 with self-recording instruments ; that of Calcutta with barograph, 

 thermograph. &c, similar to those of the Kew observatory, and 

 those of Allahabad and Lahore with the meteorograph of M. Yan 

 Rysselberghe. These observatories were to be under the immediate 

 charge of the reporters. 



II. Twenty-one second-class observatories, at which (with two 

 exceptions, viz., False Point and Saugor Island) observations were to 



