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better way was to speak of it by the number of feet. With regard to the 
different effects of the rain falling on the bare and treeless hill sides, and that 
which fell on slopes covered with wood and undergrowth, we have in India 
illustrations of both. Where there is this vegetation the water is checked 
and well distributed, and the rivulets flow in an ordinary and more equable 
way, but in places where the undergrowth has been cut down, the water- 
courses fill with rapidity, and the flooded rivers do much damage. At 
several places where valuable buildings have been threatened, protective 
works have been constructed to preserve them. In one part of the paper 
reference is made to the manner in which the rainfall is affected by the ranges 
of high hills. In a tour I made some years ago across the hills during the 
rainy season, for the first nine days we were exposed to exceedingly heavy 
rains, and the hill sides were covered with rank vegetation. On crossing the 
hills we entered a rainless country, and for the next six weeks had not a drop 
of rain. On our return, immediately on crossing to the south side of the 
hills we again came upon abundant vegetation, and were immediately 
enveloped in clouds and rain. I think that this Society is greatly indebted 
to Mr. Bateman for the most interesting paper he has given us upon this im- 
portant subject. 
Mr. W. Griffith. — The science of meteorology, though less compre- 
hensive now than in Aristotle’s time, includes all physical causes affecting 
or affected by the atmosphere. Etymologically, it signifies an account 
of the sublime. It deserves the name, for we cannot reason thereon 
without raising our thoughts from earth to heaven. When we consider 
the atmosphere as the medium which transmits light and heat, and 
retains or disperses moisture, and that without its aid in the dispersion 
of the rays of light the whole of the heavens above our heads would be 
one black canopy, we can understand the benefits we derive from it ; and 
Mr. Bateman’s paper is of value, inasmuch as it leads us to consider 
some of those benefits, one of them being that the atmosphere is a large 
reservoir of moisture, which produces the effects which we witness on the 
cultivation of the earth. If we were to go back to an early period in the 
earth’s history, we should find how this moisture in times past has not only 
been productive of crops, but has positively produced the earth which has 
grown the crops. Some of the most fertile parts of England are formed of 
the new red sandstone, which is not generally supposed to be capable of 
growing crops ; but we know that owing to the way in which the moisture of 
the atmosphere has worn it away, it has become one of the most fruitful of 
our soils. The facts that have been brought before us with regard to India 
are calculated to arouse the interest of all who have heard them. A few 
years since, when I had occasion to devote my attention to matters connected 
with Indian law, I extended my reading, and was much struck by the part 
played by the monsoons in the watering of that country during six months 
in the year. I noted that during half the year the melting snows of the 
Himalayas replenished the rivers, and during the other half the monsoons 
brought from the ocean the heavy rain-clouds, so that in each period the 
