296 INDIAN METEOROLOGY. 



by Mr. Blanford on the storms of the west coast and on the 

 land-formed cyclone of Gujrat of July 1881, and a very 

 important paper by Mr. Hill on the normal temperature of 

 Northern India. 



The observatories in existence in 1880-85 were classified by 

 Mr. Blanford as follows : — 



Low-level observatories in India. 

 Hill observatories. 

 Himalayan valley observatories. 

 Extra-Indian observatories. 

 Ships. 



Of the first four classes there had been 117 in 1880, and these 

 were increased to 128 in 1885, exclusive of 22 observatories in 

 Bengal, which were established in connexion with the provincial 

 system of telegraphic weather report. 



The actinometric observations at Leh, after 17 months, did not 

 prove so successful as had been anticipated, for owing to the cloudi- 

 ness of the skies, Leh turned out, during a large part of the year, to 

 be even a less favourable station than Mussoorie. Fifty-two com- 

 plete sets of three daily observations and six long series, together 

 with 64 imperfect sets of the former and 14 of the latter, were the 

 total remit of the 17 months' work. It was, therefore, deemed in- 

 expedient to continue the experiment, and arrangements were made 

 for Sergeant Rowland and Mr. Shaw to return to India at the close 

 of the season. 



Before 1SS4 all the officers of the department had been Europeans, 

 ■who had either received a special education in science or had been 

 trained in the technical work of a meteorological office. During 

 that year it was resolved as an experiment to train an educated 

 native to prepare the daily weather reports. Lalla lluchi Bam 

 Salmi, a native of the Punjab, who had taken his B.A. degree in 

 Physical Science and had passed for an M.A. degree, was selected 

 for the post. 



In the spring of 1S84 the snows on the North-Western Himalayas 

 were more extensive and later than they had been in any previous 

 year since 1S78, and Mr. Blanford, predicted a somewhat retarded or 

 weak and interrupted monsoon. So far as the rains of the early 

 part of the monsoon of North-Western India were concerned the 

 forecast was fully justified by the events. After a general burst in 

 the latter part of June the rains of all Western and North-Western 



