I82 



that this exceptional drought and heat had been caused by the exten- 

 sive felUngs and burnings for rubber planting, large areas being 

 denuded and the exposure of the bare ground to sun heat had caused 

 a heated layer of air which, rising upwards, had prevented the con- 

 densation of the clouds, 



Mr. Severn gave me the following notes ;-— " The months of Febru- 

 ary and March are practically rainless for ihe Malay Peninsula from 

 latitude 7 to latitude 3. South of that they are generally wet months. 

 This year they have been practically rainless for the first time since 

 rain guages were used. The rain has approached the area south of 

 latitude three on several occasions during these two months. It has 

 fallen heavily in the China Sea and in the Straits of Malacca, within 

 100 miles of Singapore, The clearing of the jungle in Johore may be 

 the cause of the failure of the usual heavy rains." The clearings 

 burning and exposure to sunheat of big areas must undoubtedly 

 affect the meteorology of any country. 



The evaporation of water from cleared areas exposed to sun is 

 very great. Anyone who has looked over hill forest after a heavy 

 rain must have noticed the roads marked out by a dense mist of 

 rapidly evaporating water rising from the exposed road surface, while 

 no such mist is appearing air.ong the forest trees. 



It is certainly remarkable that the worst of the drought has been 

 over the South of the Peninsula where large areas have been denuded 

 of trees, and so recently planted that the young rubber trees have not 

 developed sufficiently to replace the lost forest. 



Mr. Knight, who has good records of the meteorology of Singa- 

 pore for many years, affirms that articles in the local papers have 

 much exaggerated the drought, and calls attention to a paper of Mr. 

 Vaughan's, printer! in Buckley's Anecdotal History of Singapore 

 (p. 736,737),- in which reference is made to the longest actual drought 

 in record, January and February, 1864, when for 35 successive days 

 no rain seems to have fallen in town while, however, Mr. Knight, on 

 Mount "Pleasant, registered seventeen hundredths of an inch. " This 

 year/' he writes, "there were very few rainless days in January 

 though the total rainfall of the montii was only just over 12^2 inches. 

 From the 28th January to February 3, seven days were rainless. The 

 rain registered in February by me was as follows : — 



4th 

 7th 

 14th 

 15th 

 leth 

 i7th 

 22 nd 



1.23 

 .08 

 .05 

 .94 

 •36 



i.3« 



.01 



Total 



