PHYSICAL ASPECTS OF ADEN. 
33 
The annual rainfall at Aden rarely exceeds 6 or 7 inches, while 
occasionally there falls no rain for a year and a half. “ Rain seldom 
falls , ” says Mallet, u but when it does it generally comes down in torrents. 
Of Aden it may be said with some degree of truth that there c it never 
rains but it pours/ During the last fall which has occurred (1870) seven 
inches fell in a couple of hours. The water swept along the torrents, 
filling all the drains with stones, many of them bigger than a man’s head, 
and doing considerable damage to the station. Such very heavy falls 
only occur once in ten years or so, but other smaller but still heavy ones 
occur at shorter intervals/'’ 1 
The subjoined readings give the registered rainfall in the Crater 
from 1871 — 1876. Previous to that year the maximum recorded in the 
preceding eleven years was 8*03 inches in 1870, while in 1871 the fall 
amounted to 24 cents only. 
Rainfall registered at the Civil Hospital in the Crater : — 2 
Months. 
1872-73. 
1873-74. 
| 1874-75. 
1875-76. 
Inches. 
Cents. 
Inches 
Cents. 
jlnches. 
Cents. 
Inches. 
Cents. 
April . 
1 
9 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
May 
0 
20 
0 
10 
0 
0 
0 
2 
June 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
July . 
0 
41 
0 
2 
0 
0 
0 
0 
August 
0 
98 
0 
27 
1 
68 
0 
0 
September 
0 
21 
1 
28 
0 
0 
0 
0 
October « 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
November 
0 
0 
0 
12 
0 
5 
0 
22 
December 
0 
42 
0 
11 
0 
0 
0 
18 
January 
0 
85 
0 
45 
0 
0 
1 
49 
February 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
42 
0 
17 
March . 
4 
53 
0 
0 
0 
0 
1 
65 
Total 
• 
8 
69 
2 
35 
2 
05 
3 
73 
At Steamer Point the following totals of rainfall have been observed 3 
during the years 1907-1911 : — 
Year. 
1907. 
1608. 
1909. 
1910. 
1911. 
Total rainfall 
0 
1*3 
*73 
3 
1*55 
1 Mallet, P. R., in Memoirs Geol. Snrv. India, Vol. VII, pt. 3, p. 4. 
2 Hunter 1. c. 
8 Kindly supplied by Lieutenant-Colonel. S. E, Prall, I.M.S. 
