50 
MEMORANDUM. 
4. At Bombay the temperature falls as low as 60° in January, 
and at Rangoon it sinks to 62° in December and January. Further 
south however on either coast this drawback would be avoided. I 
have no access at present to records of absolute extremes, but the 
mean monthly temperatures at sunrise are given in Schlagintweit’s 
work for several places on both coasts, of which it will suffice to 
give Cochin as an example : — 
Cochin. 
December 
- 75 to 78-2 
January 
- 74 „ 76 
February 
- 74-5 „ 76-8 
Further south on the western and Burma coast the extremes of 
heat also are more moderate than at Rangoon and Bombay. At 
Cochin for instance the highest monthly mean takei^ at 4 p.m: does 
not exceed 90°. We may therefore conclude that Canara, Malabar, 
Travancore and the Burma coast from Moulmein southwards offer 
the desired conditions as regards temperature for the successful 
cultivation of the Caoutchouc yielding species of Hevea. I would 
specially draw the attention of forest officers in this respect to the 
moist evergreen forests at the foot of the Coorg Ghats, and in 
Canara, as well as to the Attaran valley, and similar localities in 
Tenasserim. 
5. The annual rainfall in Para seems to be about 6ft to 90 inches, 
this would be somewhat less than the annual fall on the southern 
part of the western and Burma coast (Cananore 123, Cochin 
' 105 inches, Moulmein 175, Mergui 165 inches) ; but the supply 
of moisture appears to be more uniformly distributed over the 
seasons of the year in the Caoutchouc yielding region of Brazil 
than is the case in most parts of the moist zones of India. 
In Para the rains are from March to July, but some rain falls 
also during the dry season. In the Amazon valley it rains from 
January to May, but there are occasional showers in November, 
and intervals of fine weather during the wet season. So far the 
data given by Mr. Collins would agree well with the seasons on 
the western and Burma coast, save that the principal rains occur 
at another time of the year. But Dr. Spruce states positively that 
the Heveas thrive best in a humid climate, where there are rarely 
10 days together dry even in the so-called dry season. 
