378 
DISCUSSION OF METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS IN INDIA. 
gauges within the distance of a mile, they differed in their contents several inches 
from each other ; and at Mahabuleshwur and Paunchgunny, nearly on the same level, 
the latter place being only eleven miles to the eastward of the former, the difference 
in the annual fall of rain was respectively 254 inches and 50 inches! The normal 
conditions are, that there is a much greater fall of rain on the sea-coasts than on the 
table-lands of the Deccan, but that the Ghats intervening between the coasts and 
the table-lands have three times the amount of the fall on the coasts, and from ten 
to fifteen times the amount of the fall on the table-lands of the interior ; the paucity 
of the fall of rain at Cape Comorin and in the mouths of the Indus would also ap- 
pear to be normal conditions. 
The Tables must be referred to for the winds ; the normal states are those of the 
S.W. and N.E. monsoons, and the influence of the latter is periodically felt at the 
height of 8640 feet, which height would appear just at the upper surface of the stratum 
of air constituting the S.W. monsoon ; but hourly observations for lengthened periods 
of time are necessary from Dodabetta, to determine what really are the periodical winds 
at that height. From the points other than those between S. and W., and N. and E., 
there is also at the several stations a certain amount of periodicity in the winds ; the 
winds that are common to different stations having only a slant more or less at the 
different stations ; for instance, the S.W. and N.W. winds of Bombay blowing in the 
summer months in Calcutta incline rather to be S. andN. winds, than S.W. and N.W. 
winds ; but to be enabled to speak with any precision upon this branch of the meteo- 
rology of India, and indeed upon most other branches with a comprehensive and philo- 
sophical object, hourly observations are necessary, — simultaneously taken with previ- 
ously compared instruments by zealous observers ; and having the records in a form 
common to all the observers, so as to admit of rigid comparisons : — when this is 
done, not only in India but in Europe, meteorologists will be in a better condition to 
generalize and propound normal conditions, than tlie state of our knowledge at pre- 
sent would justify, for it must be borne in mind that “Error latet in generalibus.” 
The Plates referred to in the preceding paper are numbered XVII. XVIII. 
XIX. XX. 
