288 
along the Aracan coast, from the mouth of the Irawaddy up . 
the valley of the Brahmapootra. The other, on the west 
coast of India, from Cape Comorin to the Tapti — from the 
seashore to the summit of the Ghauts ! It is in these regions 
that the most remarkable falls occur, for the reason that they 
are placed in the direct course of the south-west monsoon, 
catching its first impact at heights where vapour is most 
readily condensed into rain. Mr. Bateman told us that at 
2,000 feet the greatest condensation takes place in our islands ; 
it is at a greater elevation in India, and the most striking 
illustration is found at Cherra Poonjee, in the Khasia 
hills, where, at 4,000 feet above the sea, 600 inches of 
rain fall in half the year. Here the locality is on the edge 
of an abrupt mountain ridge and plateau, situated about 200 
miles from the Bay of Bengal, the intervening country being 
flat alluvium, covered with rivers and swamps. Over this the 
south-west monsoon blows, laden with moisture from the 
ocean, which is increased by absorption from the wet country 
over which it passes. On the plateau of Cherra Poonjee the 
first condensation takes place, and the fall is so great that 
in a few weeks the plains of the Sylhet district, lying at the 
foot of the hills, are converted into a sea ; whilst a few miles 
inland, and at little greater elevation, the fall is reduced to 
less than one-half. I spent my first year in India at this 
station, and the 610 inches I registered on that occasion gave 
me an interest in rainfall that I have never lost. 
At Mahabuleshwar, in the Western Ghauts, the conditions 
are somewhat similar, but there the fall is less, amounting only 
to about 300 inches. In these instances, we have all the con- 
ditions favourable to the production of rain in the highest 
degree, but these excessive rainfalls in certain elevated regions 
are quite local, and no more represent the average rainfall of 
all India than does the dryness of the desert tracts in the 
north-west ; or the heavy fall on the hills on the west 
coast of Britain, in Cumberland or Scotland, the average 
rainfall of Great Britain. There is, however, an analogy 
between India and Britain in this respect, much as they 
differ otherwise in the nature of the distribution of rain, 
that the heavy falls at Cherra Poonjee and Mahabuleshwar are 
paralleled by the heavy falls on the slope of Ben Lomond, 
Glen gyle, or the Cumberland hills ; while the heavy rainfall 
on our western coasts — the result of the warm moist air 
coming from the Atlantic and Gulf Stream — resembles the 
south-west monsoon, which deposits its heavy rain on the 
Western Ghauts and on the coast of Aracan — proximity to 
the Equator and high temperature in the latter cases making 
the effects so much more striking. 
VOL. xv. x 
