600 
ME. H. E. BEANE OED ON THE WINDS OF NOETHEEN INDIA. 
North-western Provinces, the Punjab, and Bombay, chiefly taken from recent registers. 
The whole, numbering 92 stations, give a very fair conspectus of the distribution of 
rainfall in Northern India, with the exception, indeed, of the Bombay Presidency, for 
which I have been able to obtain, in addition to that of the Colaba Observatory, only 
a few old and published Tables. The rainfall map (Plate XLIX.) has been drawn up 
from these data. It shows the distribution of the total annual rainfall by lines of equal 
precipitation, which represent increments or decrements of 10 inches. The chart cannot 
of course pretend to accuracy in detail, since rainfall, more than any other climatic 
element, is subject to local variation, being affected by local geographical conditions, 
such as the proximity of small hills, &c. ; but the lines show with tolerable faithfulness 
the broader features of its distribution. 
I have indicated by inscriptions on the chart the tracts in which rain is received at 
each of the three principal seasons. Of these latter, the summer and early autumn rain, 
that of the rainy season emphatically so called, is by far the most copious and extensive ; 
so that, beyond a slight recession towards the coast of the ishyetic lines of the Punjab, 
Upper Provinces, and Assam by the omission of the winter rains, and of those of Orissa, 
Bengal, and the eastern districts generally by that of the spring or hot-weather rains, 
the map would require little modification to represent the rainfall of the first-named 
period only. 
The cold-weather rains are received most regularly and in the largest quantity in the 
North-western Provinces and the Punjab, in Upper Assam and Cachar. In Behar and 
the Gangetic delta they are less regular and lighter. They usually begin in December 
and continue till March in the North-western Provinces, till April in the Punjab. In 
Bengal, as we have seen, sea-winds begin to be felt in February and March, and there 
is no period of demarcation between winter and spring rains. The same is the case in 
Assam and Cachar. The mean rainfall of eight stations in the Gangetic plain from 
Goruckpore and Benares upwards, and of eight stations in the Punjab from November 
to April, is as follows : — 
Gangetic Plain. 
November . . . 0‘04 inch. 
December . . . 0-29 ,, 
January 1*02 ,, 
Punjab. 
0-00 inch. 
0-53 „ 
0-53 „ 
Gangetic Plain. 
February 1-05 inch. 
March 0-91 „ 
April 0-54 „ 
Punjab. 
T02 inch. 
1-29 „ 
0-81 „ 
These rains, therefore, reach their maximum a month later in the Punjab than in the 
North-western Provinces. This does not coincide with the period of greatest cold, nor 
even with the winter maximum of humidity on the plains ; but it appears to coincide 
rather with the latter at an elevation of 6000 or 7000 feet, to judge from the register 
of the single station Chuckrata. In any case it is determined by some cause other than 
mere cold, and this I take to be the humidity of the anti-monsoon current. In both 
cases the winter rains are followed by a break of about two months, during which a 
scanty and uncertain rainfall only is received from occasional thunder-storms. Stations 
situated near the northern hill-range receive more rain than those lying towards the 
