November 2, 1P91.] 
THE TROPICAL AGR5CULTURIST. 
565 
METEOROLOGY IN INDIA. 
As we pointed out not long Ago, the Meteoro- 
logioal Department has given its unreserved ad- 
hesion to the truth insisted upon, some months 
since, in these columns, that India is not, as 
was supposed till very recently, a kind of meteoro- 
logical imperium in impi-rio— or, as the monograph 
just published by the Department puts it — " a 
self-contained meteorological region cut off from 
Central Asia, etc , by the high mountains in the 
north-east, north and north-west, and from the rest 
of the world by a belt of calm, or doldrums, running 
along the Equator from Sumatra to Africa." Corre.s- 
pondenoes in meteorological conditions too well 
certified to be questioned, and too numerous to be 
referred to mere conisidence for an explaoation, 
establish beyond doubt the existence of an 
intimate relationship between the weather of the 
Indian peninsula, and that of regions far beyond 
these barriers ; but how far this connexion is the 
result of a direct relationship of cause and effect 
between the observed phenomena, and how far of 
their relationship to soma common cause lying 
outside the limits of observation, still remain9 to 
be determined. The probability, we think, is that 
both kinds of relationship come into play — in 
other words, that there is direct interaction between 
the weather phenomerja of these remote parte, as 
indeed there no doubt is, in some degree or other 
between all the parts of the world's atmosphere, 
and that they are also Eubjeot to the common 
influence of some more general cause. Looliing, 
however, at the formidable character of the barriers 
referred to, the probability seems to be that it is 
to a relationship of the latter kind that the observed 
correspondences are mainly due, and that direct 
interaction between changes occurring in the wea- 
ther of the Indian peninsula and that of trans- 
Himalayan or trans-Equatorial regions plays an 
altogether subsidary part in the.r genesis. One 
of the great defects of existing meteorologicial 
theory, is the extent to which it ignores the 
movements and other physical conditions of the 
upper regions of the atmosphere. The defect itself 
is no doubt largely due to the extremely limited 
character of the opportunities that have hitherto 
existed for observing these changes and conditions ; 
and its removal must depend to a great extent on 
their multiplicatijn in the future. Of the larger 
movements of the atmosphero at high altitudes, 
we possess indeed a certain measure of theoretical 
knowledge, based partly on inf renoe from what we 
know regarding the motion o: the earth ; and we are 
also ab'e, by calculation, to arrive at rough 
conclusions regarding the general temperature of ttia 
atmosphere at different altitudes. As a means of 
supplementing and checking the former knov./ledge, 
we have, too, the observed movements of the clouds 
in rcKions beyond the reach of the anemometer, 
though thesf, after all, do not carry us very far. 
But Iho information derived from all these sources 
put together falls very far short of what is needed 
to make meteorology anything like an exact science. 
Without accepting M. Fayo's theory of the origin 
of cyclones, whiuh are probably not all due to the 
same cause, it may be regarded as almost certain 
that many, if not most, of the more violent of 
these phenomena originata in movements in tho 
upper regions of the atmosphere ; for it is in those 
regions that tho normal movements of the air are 
most rapid, reach ng a velocity, there is reason to 
bolievo, of as much ai eighty or oven a hundred 
miles an hour, and it is there, conseqnent y, that 
tho whirls produced by the mutual impact of eur- 
ruiits moving in different directions are likely to 
develop tho most formidable proportions. That 
buuIi tttnwspherio whirlpools can persist for any 
length of time without affecting the air near the 
earth's surface, is in the highest degree improb- 
able, and there is a great deal of an a priori 
character to be urged in favour of M, Paye's view 
that tli'=y must often propagate themselves down- 
ward until they actually touch bottom on the solid 
substance of the globe. The incontinent develop, 
ment, moreover, of circumscribed areas of low 
pressure at the earth's surface, and their long 
continued persistence often in the entire absence 
of horizontal movement, and in the presence of 
conditons under which according to all known 
physical law.=!, they should rapidly fill up and dis- 
appear, presents a mystery which meteorology has, 
so far, utterly failed to solve ; but which would 
probably vanish it their connexion with move- 
ments in the upper regions of the atmosphere 
were recognised. JNor is it only such violent me- 
teorological convulsions as cyclones that are pro- 
bably traceable to changes taking place at altitudes 
beyond the reach of observation. There is every 
reason to believe, for instance, that sudden depres- 
sion of the temperature at the earth's surface are, 
in many cases, caused not by a lateral inflow of 
cold air, but by the descent of a body of such 
air from above. The common phenomenon of an 
absolutely, or comparatively, clear sky becoming 
overcast, sometimes with great rapidity, by clouds 
which seem to come from nowhere, and which 
are obviously not brought in laterally from ad- 
jacent regions, is, no doubt, due to such a move- 
ment; the cloud being really formed in situ as a 
result of the condensation, by the down rush of 
cold air, of vapour suspended in the atmosphere 
which was previously invisible. What is needed 
to give greater coherence to our meterologioal 
knowledge, and to confer greater certainty on our 
weather forecasts, is not merely the multiplication 
of recording stations at or near sea level, but, in 
an even greater degree, their establishment on 
mountain heights, and the discovery, if that bo 
possible, of some means of systematically observ- 
ing and recording the atmospheric changes which 
take place in regions unpenetrated by mountain tops 
and inacoesiible to balloons.— Iftdi'dK AgricuJturist. 
THE RIVAL GLASGOW TEA DEALERS. 
Mr. CranstCa has reprinted a notice of himself 
and his tea rooms from a humourous periodical called 
" The Bailie," which depicts him as a great friend 
of temperance and pr;\otioally a tee-totaler. Mr- 
Cranston deals chiefly in China teas, and accord- 
ing to " The Bailie," 
One ot his peb aubjecta, is the coutrast between the 
" bitter " and the '' mild " ppaoiea of the fragriint 
herb. The strong, puugeufc Indian teas, he points our, 
jield, wbea infused, 9 per ceut of tauoin, as agaiust 3 
par cent given out by the milder teas of the Obinose 
Empire, and jet, ha adds, the yield of theme from 
both la practically the same. 
Our readers nerd scarcely beinformed that tea without 
a good proportion of taanin is poor stuff. Mr. 
Cranston boasts that 
£1,024: 18: -1 
Is the actual first cost price of our first purchase 
of Now Season's Tea, con listing of one iuvoice for 
142 Half Chests Finest Kintujk Moniug, at 2/4 per 
pound, duty paid. 
Wo are informed that this n the bi^'gest "chop" 
and large.it purchase of China Tea at the price in one 
Hue thut has beon effected iu the We.st of Sootland 
for ten yeniA back — " wholeaale hou les " oven not 
excluded. 
It would be an sot of vandalism to mix this exquisite 
China Tei along with those strong, dark, bitter Indian 
