November 2, i?9i.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 
365 
METEOROLOGY IN INDIA. 
Aa we pointed out not lonp; ego, the Meteoro- 
logical Department has given ila unreserved ad- 
hesion to the truth insisted upon, some months 
sinop, in these columns, that India ia not, as 
was supposed till very recently, a kind of meteoro- 
logical impcrium iii imperio— 01 , aa the monograph 
just published by the Department puts it — “ a 
self-oontaincd meteorological region cut off from 
Central -Ysia, etc , by the high mountains in the 
norlh-taat, north and north-west, and from the rest 
of the world by a belt of calm, or doldrums, running 
along the Equator from Humatra to Africa.” Corres- 
pondences in meteorological conditions too well 
certified to bo questioned, and too numerous to be 
referred to mere conicidenoo for an eiplanation, 
establish beyond doubt the existence of an 
iutimate relationship lelween 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 oanse and effect 
between the observed phenomena, and how far of 
their relationship to some common cause lying 
outside the limits of observation, still remains to 
be determined. The probability, we think, is that 
both kinds of relationship oorae into play — in 
other words, that there is direct inicvaotion between 
the weather phenomena of these remote parts, 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 Eubject to the common 
influence of some more general cause. Looking, 
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 
correspondenosB are mainly due, and that direct 
iuteraotion between changes occurring in the wea- 
ther of the Indian peninsula and that of trans- 
Uimatayan or trans-Equatorisl regions plays an 
altogether siibaidary part in their genesis. One 
of the great defects of exist ing meteorulogicial 
theory, is the extent to which it ignores the 
movements and other physical conditions of the 
upper regions of the atmosphere. The detect itself 
is no doubt largely duo to the extremely limited 
charaoter of the opportunities that have hitherto 
existed for observing those changes and conditions ; 
and its removal must depend to a great extent on 
their multiplicatijii in the future. Of the larger 
movements of the atmosphere at high altitudes, 
we possess indeed a certain measure of theoretical 
knowledge, based partly on inf ronoe from what wo 
know regarding the motion 0 ! the earth; and we are 
also able, by oalculation, to arrive at rough 
oonolusions regarding the general temperature of the 
atmosphere at different altitudee. As a moans of 
supplementing and cheeking the former knowledge, 
we have, too, the observed movements of the clouds 
in regions beyond the ruaoh of the anemometer, 
though these, after all, do not carry us very far. 
But the information derived from all these sources 
put together falls very far short of what is needed 
to make meteorology anything like an exact scienoe. 
Without accepting M. b’aye’s theory of the origin 
of oyoiones, which 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 originats in movements in the 
upper regions of the atmosphere ; for it ia in those 
regions that tho normal movtiuenla of the air are 
most rapid, reach ng a velocity, there is reason to 
holieve, of as much as eighty or even a hundred 
miles an hour, and it is there, oonsequentiy, that 
tho whirls produoed by tlie mutual impact of our- 
rents moving in different direations are likely to 
develop tho most formidable proportions. That 
BUoh atmosphorio whirlpools can porsist for any 
length of time without affcoting the air near tho 
earth’s surface, ia in the highest degree improb- 
able, and there ia a groat deal of an a priori 
oharaoter to be urged in favour of M. Eaye’s view 
that th’y must often propagate themselves down- 
ward until they aelually touch bottom on the solid 
substanoe of tho globe. The incontinent develop- 
ment, moreover, of oircumseribed areas of low 
presRnro at tho earth’s surface, and their long 
continued persistenee often in tho entire absenoe 
of horizontal movement, and in tho presence of 
eonditons under which according to all known 
physienl laws, they should rapidly fill up and dis- 
appear, presents a mystery which meteorology baa, 
BO far, utterly failed to solve; but which would 
probably vanish if their connexion with move- 
ments in tho upper regions of tho atmosphere 
were recognised. Nor is it only such violent me- 
teorological oonvulsions as cyclones that are pro- 
bably traceable to ohangos taking place at altitudes 
beyond the reach of obeorvalion. There is every 
reason to believe, for instance, that sudden depres- 
sion of the temperature at the earth's surface ate, 
in many oases, caused not by a lateral ioflow of 
cold air, but by the descent of a body of snob 
air from above. The common phenomenon of an 
abaolutoly, or comparatively, clear sky beooming 
overcast, sometimes with great rapidity, by clouds 
which seem to come from nowhere, and which 
are obviously not brought in laterally Irom ad- 
jacent regions, is, no doubt, due to sneh a move- 
ment ; the cloud being really formed in situ as a 
result of tho oondensatiou, by tho down rush of 
cold air, of vapour enspended in the atmosphere 
which was previously invisible. What ia needed 
to give greater coherence to our metcrologioal 
knowledge, and to confer greater certainty on our 
weather forecasts, is not merely tho muUipIioation 
of recording stations at or near sea level, but, in 
an oven greater degree, their establishment on 
mountain heights, and the discovery, if that bo 
possible, of some moms of systematically observ- 
ing and recording the almospherio changes wbieh 
take place in regions unponelrated by mountain tops 
and inaoeessible to balloons . — Indian .igriculturist. 
» ■ 
THE RIVAL (iliASGOW TEA DEALERS. 
Mr. Oranstou has reprinted a notice of himself 
and his tea rooms from a humourous periodical called 
“ Tho Bailie,” whioh depicts him aa a great (riond 
of temperanoe and praolioally a tee totaler. Mr. 
Cranston deals ohiefly in China teas, and aoeord- 
ing to ’■ The B.ailie," 
One ot his pet anbjecla, is the oonlrast between tho 
“ bitter ” and the ■“ mild ” spjoies ot the fragraut 
herb. The atrong, pimgoiit Indi.m teas, he paints out, 
] ield, when infused, 0 per cent of tannin, aa against 3 
per cent given nnt by the milder teas of the Oliinose 
Empire, and ;et, he adds, tho yield of thoino from 
both IS practically tho same. 
Our readers neod soaroely be informed that tea without 
a goo.l proportion of tannin is poor stuff. Mr. 
Cranston boasts that 
.£l,0i4; 18: 1 
Is the aotuat first rost prioo of our first purchase 
of Now .SeiisoiTs Tea, eon dating ot one invoice for 
142 Half Cheets Einost KintuJk Mouing, at 2/4 per 
ponnH, duty paid. 
We are iiironued that this is tho bi/gost ‘*ohop” 
and largest purohaso of China Tea at the price in one 
lino that has boon eff.'otod in the West of SaotUnd 
for ten ye irs back— “ wholesale houiea ” oven not 
cxolndcil. 
It would bo an act of vandalism to mix this exquisite 
China Tea along with those strong, dark, bitter Indian 
