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SKETCH OE THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY 
Low says, “ the barometer lias been observed in Pinang to perform 
4 revolutions in the twenty four hours. At 
4 a. m. It is lowest and remains so a short while, then ascends ; 
until 
10 a. m. When it remains some time stationary and then descends 
till 
4 p. m. When it is at its maximum, it is again stationary for a 
short period and then between 
10 P. M. 
and 
4 a. M 
These revolutions are most regular, and the maximum and mini¬ 
mum are greatest at the full and change of the moon.”* 
Although the general climate of the Peninsula is characterized by 
humidity, it is subject, like Sumatra, to droughts which appear to ap¬ 
proach to periodical. Marsden States, that droughts of long conti¬ 
nuance occur in Sumatra, and gives a particular account of one 
which happened in the year 1770 and lasted eight months. Our ex¬ 
perience in the Straits is yet brief, but it leads to the conclusion that 
that marked droughts of longer or shorter continuance are liable to 
recur every five or six years in Pinang. The recorded droughts of 
long continuance are those of 1810, lasting 56 days (2d. January to 
27th February, with the exception of one rainy day), 1821-22 last- 
nearly four months (December to March) during which period 
u scarcely a drop of rain fell.”f Twenty years later a drought of 
equal duration occured at the same season, .arid 111 its effects was the 
most severe of which there is any record or recollection. It lasted 
from the middle of December 1842 to the middle of March 1843, 
and was attended with much and universal evil. Spice plantations 
* Dissertation on the soil and agriculture of Pinang <S*c,p. 318. Baron 
von Humboldt observes with reference to the intertropical aerial tides, “I 
everywhere observed that the barometer attains its maximum at 9 h. or 
9$ h. in the morning; that it descends slowly till noon, but rapidly from 
noon till 4 \ h. that it reascends till 11 h. at night, when it is a little lower 
than at 9 h. in the morning; that it sinks slowly all night till 4 h. in the 
morning, and again rises till 9 h.In some places of the torrid zone the 
baromeier indicates the real time within a quarter of an hour.” Personal 
Narrative vol. 6. p, 700. 
t Ur. Ward. 
