STRAITS METEOROLOGY 



V^lfijfj? N the Annual Summary for 1882, the Officer who is 



jp, responsible for our Meteorological Statistics stated, truly 

 ^^g enough, that "an exhaustive report on the Meteorology 

 S^ " of these Settlements cannot yet be attempted, as the 

 e " subject is still in its infancy here." But it does not 

 seem too early to endeavour to obtain some results from the 

 series of Rainfall Returns ( 1869-83 ) which the Colonial Gov- 

 ernment commenced to keep in Singapore soon after the Transfer, 

 and which are now taken with increasing care at nearly twenty 

 stations, situated at intervals along the whole West Coast of the 

 Peninsula. A wider range of observations is also now avail- 

 able in the comparative Tables compiled by the Director of the 

 Batavia Observatory from 166 stations in the Eastern Archi- 

 pelago, the fourth volume of which (for 1882) has just been received. 



The year 1882-3 has been one of peculiar interest to meteoro- 

 logists. It was both a "sun-spot" year and a "cholera" year, the res- 

 pective 11-year and 17-year periods happening to correspond. Nor 

 have the theorists been disappointed. 



It becomes of interest, therefore, to examine our local Returns 

 with special attention, incomplete though they undoubtedly are 

 for any large generalisations. 



In the first place, what are these theories respecting the period- 

 icity of solar and magnetic phenomena and all that is supposed to 

 be connected with them ? The last published volume of the new 

 edition of the "Encyclopaedia Britannica" (vol. XVI of 1883) 

 explains them, on the highest authority, as follows : — 



