1870.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 95 



himself be disposed to suggest that the expanding process, to which 

 he referred, directly produced the result which Mr. Blanfo rd 

 mentioned ; clearly, most of the discarded air and vapour would be 

 thrown off on the side towards which the wind is blowing, i, e., in 

 the case of the S- W. monsoon in Bengal, towards the North, and 

 thus there would be accumulation of vapour on that side ; also the 

 additional heat of the area of minimum barometric pressure would 

 diminish the saturation of the incumbent air and consequently the 

 rainfall ; so that the comparison between the rainfall on that 

 area, and on an area north of it, would in this way be doubly 

 affected. 



Mr. H. F. Bl an f o r d made some further remarks regarding the 

 explanation which he gave of the scarcity of rainfall in the north 

 west Provinces during the last year, and also regarding the sugges- 

 tions made by the President. 



Col. the Hon'ble P. Strachey observed that the greatest obsta- 

 cle which is in the way of a satisfactory explanation of the various 

 air currents lies in the high range of mountains which bounds India 

 towards North. He thought that we are as yet far from being 

 sufficiently acquainted with the varied influences which the Hima- 

 layan range undoubtedly has upon those atmospheric changes in 

 India, and until our knowledge of this range has been much more 

 improved, it seemed to him almost impossible that we could arrive 

 at anything like a satisfactory explanation of the causes of those 

 atmospheric disturbances. With regard to the rainfall, this diffi- 

 culty is by far not so great, and an almost quite satisfactory 

 explanation of it can be given. Col. Strachey then explained 

 in detail the rainfall and its causes throughout India. He pointed 

 out the remarkable diminution of the rainfall in the whole tract of 

 country along the bases of the Himalayas from Bengal towards 

 Peshawur, then towards Mooltan, and alluded to the local varia- 

 tions along the Western ghats. 



After some further remarks on the same subject by Mr. H. F. 

 B 1 a n f o r d, the meeting broke up. 



