NOTES ON THE RAINFALL OF SINGAPORE. 



BY J. 3T. L. WHEATLEY. 



The amount of Rainfall in Singapore having been a topic very 

 frequently discussed, it is with some diffidence the accompanying 

 tables are submitted. Any one who applies himself to the study 

 of this subject, cannot but feel, at the very threshold of his labours, 

 how little he has to help him, and how difficult it is to arrive at any 

 definite conclusion. 



For some years back, I have tried to collect as much information 

 as was possible on the rainfall of this Settlement, but find that 

 very little indeed can be done in this matter. Whatever records 

 of rainfall may have been kept in times past, all that are at pre- 

 sent available, are : — 



1. — Statements of the number of rainy days in each year, 



from 1820 to 1825. 

 2.— A Statement of Rainfall for the year 1S35. 

 3. — Observations made at the Singapore Observatory, for 

 the years 1841 to 1844, and for the first nine months 

 of 1845. 

 4. — After a large gap of seventeen years, Mr. J. D. 

 Vaughn's Observations, from 1862 to 1866, whose 

 returns were published quarterly in the local Govern- 

 ment Gazette. 

 5. — Meteorological Observations, which were commenced 

 by the late Dr. Rasdell, Principal Civil Medical 

 Officer, Straits Settlements, in I860, and which are 

 maintained to the present time. The Monthly Re- 

 turns of these were published for many years in the 

 Government Gazette, but of late years they have been 

 discontinued. The P. C. M. O., however, supplies the 

 press, public institutions, &c, with a yearly copy of 

 Monthly Returns, both of Meteorological Observa- 



