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tion canals necessary. Colonel Grant spoke of the comparative smallness of 
the rainfall in Central Africa at certain elevations, which would seem to 
involve the necessity of a large rainfall, because in the equatorial regions, 
as I have already said, we have the great distillery of rain. But if you go 
into the centre of India, in the tropical regions within 15 degrees of the line, 
over 12 you find it to be very dry. These are the arid regions. You have 
the damp, moist wind, the monsoon, blowing from the equatorial regions, 
the reversal of the north-east trade, that would be blowing the other 
way, but for the distribution of land and water which disturbs the atmos- 
pheric equilibrium. These monsoons, on their first impact on the ghats 
which fringe the west coast of India, rising to a height of 3,000 or 4,000 
feet — the height at which condensation most rapidly takes place, — have the 
water squeezed out, and it falls in the shape of rain ; while in the centre of the 
peninsula you have a dry table-land almost under the shadow of the moun- 
tains that are squeezing out the raim Old travellers noticed the phenomenon, 
but were unable to explain it. We understand how it is that those western 
ghats condense the water out of the clouds and allow the air to pass dry over 
the other side. In that portion of the country south of Madras the atmo- 
sphere is comparatively dry, simply because the whole of the moisture has 
been squeezed out by the mountains it has passed over ; one can readily 
understand how it may be that the portion of equatorial Africa referred to 
should be dry for similar reasons. I am not sufficiently acquainted with 
the physical geography of that part of the world to go beyond this ; but 
imagine the explanation may be something like that which I have given. 
Colonel Grant’s exploration of that part of the world has been so large that I 
feel sorry he did not give us more information on the subject. General 
Maclagan was very kind in his comments on my paper. Indeed, I felt some 
hesitation in reading it in his presence, for he knows more about the country 
than I do. He spoke of the distribution of rain. It is not that there is want 
of water, but difficulty in its distribution. We hear of terrible famines 
in India and the destruction of millions of lives, and we are led to suppose 
that this is occasioned by want of food. It is only a want of food in the famine 
districts. There is plenty of food produced in the country to supply the whole 
population if one could only distribute it. It is also important to remember 
that the country we are talking of, though it does not look very large on the 
map, is really equal in size to the whole of Europe, with the exception 
of Russia, and by this I mean the United Kingdom, France, Spain, 
Germany, Austria, Hungary, Italy, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Greece, 
European Turkey, and more. Of course, the conditions are very varied 
in different portions of the country. As to the distribution of water, of 
which there is abundance at one season of the year and very little at another, 
while in some regions none at all, or scarcely any, it is made more or less 
available by irrigation ; and it is owing to the particular department charged 
with this, of which General Maclagan is so distinguished a member, that 
the country is so well supplied with water, and will by-and-by be still 
