358 LIEUT.-COLONEL SYKES’S DISCUSSION OF METEOROLOGICAL 
The stations extend along the Travancore or western coast from Cape Comorin, 
lat. 8° 4', to Cochin, lat. 10° 30'. Of the three stations on the Tinnevally or Coro- 
mandel coast, Shenkottah is near Courtallum, immediately at the east base of the 
Ghats, and about sixty miles from the sea-coast of Travancore; Palamcottah is 
about thirty miles from the east base of the Ghats, is sixty miles from the western 
coast, and in the latitude of Quilon ; Vaurioor is only three miles north and a little 
east of Cape Comorin. The western and eastern stations are separated by the Ghats, 
which in some places rise to a height of 6000 feet, but within ten miles of Cape Co- 
morin they break off into separate groups and peaks of greatly diminished height. 
Bearing in mind the preceding extraordinary discrepancies, not only in the annual 
and monthly fall of rain in the same locality and in proximate localities, I proceed 
to place in juxtaposition the fall of rain at various places in India, from such returns 
as are within my reach, from places at the sea-level and at different elevations above 
the sea-level; and it may well be a question how far even the means of many years’ 
observations in any one locality, exhibit normal conditions for the fall of rain in 
circumscribed areas, much less for districts or provinces. 
The relative positions of the stations on the Malabar and Coromandel coasts having 
been previously stated, it only remains to notice the places somewhat inland. Poona, 
at 1 823 feet, is about forty miles eastward of the western scarp of the Ghats, and 
about sixty miles as the crow flies from the sea-shore. Kotergherry, at 6100 feet, is 
part of the Neelgherry mountains, and lies a little to the eastward of the ridges of 
Dodabetta at a lower level of 2340 feet. Dodabetta is part of the Neelgherries, and 
the highest point of the peninsula of India. Mahabuleshwur, Mercara and Uttra 
Mullay, at the common level of 4500 feet, are nearly in the same meridian, but lie 
between 9° and 18° north latitude, and are situated near to the western scarp of the 
Ghats. (See annexed Table.) 
The first feature of this Table is the almost total want of rain at every station in 
the month of February, with the exception of Kotergherry and Dodabetta, and it may 
be accounted for by this month being intermediate between the times of the S.W. and 
N.E. monsoons ; the former, on the Malabar coast, commencing in May and ending in 
October, and the latter commencing on the Coromandel coast in October and ending 
in January. The other two intermediate months, March and April, have very limited 
falls of rain, excepting at Kotergherry, Uttray Mullay and Dodabetta, at which 
places the supply is very liberal ; indeed at Kotergherry and Dodabetta the maximum 
monthly fall of the year appears to occur in April, a month that belongs to neither 
the Malabar nor Coromandel monsoons, but as the wind at Dodabetta was almost 
entirely from northerly and easterly points, the supply of rain may be more reason- 
ably considered to appertain to the tail of the N.E., rather than to the commence- 
ment of the S.W. monsoon. Poona, at 1823 feet, and Mahabuleshwur in the Deccan 
and Mercara in Coorg, at 4500 feet, have scarcely a sprinkling from the N.E. mon- 
soon, and the months of December, January, February, March and April, may be 
