1840.] 



in the Ghats of Western India, 



373 



Hence it appears that the mean temperature of 1834 was 67-3 Fahr., 

 that of the hottest month (April) 74'4, that of the coldest month (Dec.) 

 62-3 ; the mean maximum (April) 82-2, and the mean minimum (Dec.) 

 5G'2. The mean variation was greatest in April, lo'5, and least in 

 September, 2 8 ; and the mean variation for the year was only 9'o. The 

 fall of rain was prodigious, being equal to 25 feet 2 inches, and this 

 enormous mass of wat-r fell almost entirely in the months of June, July, 

 August and September. General Lodwick, late president at the court 

 of Sattarali, who transmitted to me the oflicial register, says, " I send to 

 you a copy of Dr. Murray's meteorological table. The inches of rain sre 

 no less than 802'2I. This will astonish the philosophers, but it would 

 do more than astonish them, had they the opportunity of seeing and 

 hearing the rain fall in torrents through a dense fog or mass of clouds 

 which lie upon the ground for perhaps six weeks together, with a tem- 

 perature by no means cold, and with little variation." The excessive fall 

 of rain along the line of the Ghats does not seem to be incompatible 

 with health, for the military detachment stationed permanently at Ma- 

 habuleshwar is not characterized by any unusual sickness; and the statis- 

 tical returns of the population on the hills are as healthy as those of the 

 table-lands to the eastward. It now remains to notice some striking 

 facts on the western side of the peninsula. The quantity of rain that 

 fal's differs excee lingly between the coast, th'^ Ghats within fifty miles 

 of the coast, and the table-land eastw^ard of the Gha's. The mean at 

 Bombay is 80 G9. Dr. M n'ray shows a fall in the hills, at the elevation 

 4/300 feet, of 302 inches, and my rr^cords at Poonah give a mean annual 

 fall of '23"43 inches. The solution of the causes of the a'lora dous fall of 

 rain does not o'^er any considerable dis^iculties. The enormous mass of 

 vapour taken up from the Indian (^cean on approaching India, does not 

 appear to have its upper surface at a greater elevation than five or six 

 thousand feet, while the stratum is of great thicknes'^ ; and I can bear 

 testimony to its lower surface being below fifteen or eighteen hundred 

 feet. The temperature of the air over the equator is necessarily very 

 high, and its capacity for the support of aqueous vapour is proportioned 

 to its temperatuie. The vapour is converted into rain, as it is driven 

 into air of lower temperature ; and, as the tempei ature gradually lowers 

 proceeding to the north, and approaching the land, it follows, that out 

 at sea, and along shore, with equal supplies of vaponr, a less quantity of 

 it would be converted into rain eastward. With respect to the prodigi- 

 ous fall at Mahabuleshwar and along the Ghats, it may be accounted for 

 by the supposition that the monsoon vapour being of low elevation and 

 high temperature, is driven against the mural faces, and up the chasms 



