1844.] On Rain Guages and Registry of River Freshes. 179 



the average at Madras. Accounts of these remarkable peri- 

 odical changes have hitherto been confined chiefly to the di- 

 rection of the winds along the coast and in the surrounding 

 seas and relate to navigation and hydrography ; while parti- 

 culars of the quantity of rain that falls and of the effects of the 

 Monsoons on the agriculture and climate of the land are few 

 and scattered. In return for the instruction and amusement 

 that we derive from their industrious observations and notices, 

 our friends in Europe have a right to expect to learn from us 

 something definite regarding the wonders of these climates, 

 which we alone have opportunities of seeing, and ought to 

 notice and record for their use as well as for our own. Con- 

 sidering how eminently the European community in India is 

 an educated and scientific one, it is reasonable to hope that 

 our knowledge of subjects interesting to every traveller may 

 be increased materially when it has been shown that much 

 information may be procured at small expense and with very 

 little trouble. 



Many returns of great official value now contain allusions 

 to the moderation or excess of falls of rain, to high and low 

 freshes of rivers and their effect upon cultivation and revenue, 

 and it is a question whether it might not be worth while for 

 the State to go to some expense* in order that instead of the 



* The first and total expense to Government, if four rain guages were 

 to be built in each District would be 4 X 19 X 14= Rupees 1064: not 

 much when it is considered how large sums are laid out in promoting 

 enquiries of hot greater scientific value and of far less apparent practical 

 utility. The rain guages might be established in the chief towns of the Dis- 

 tricts, and the principal Kusbahs of Talooks, where the daily recording of their 

 indications would not occupy a writer five minutes. The observations, if 

 made with regularity, would serve as a check one upon another and no im- 

 portant error could occur if the pluviometer at the principal station were 

 under the immediate charge, and the others under the general superintend* 

 ence of the Zillah Surgeon. 



The cistern rain guage might be made ornamental as well as useful. On one 

 of its vertical faces, a sundial might be figured, on another the standard English 



