Rainfall and climate in India / by Sir Joseph Fayrer.

  • Fayrer, Sir Joseph, 1824-1907.
Date:
[1881]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Rainfall and climate in India / by Sir Joseph Fayrer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    17/48
    .-rainless, or with a rainfall as low as two inches; whilst the highest fall is at Cherra Poonjee, in the Khasia hills, on the aorth-east frontier, where 600 inches fall in the year. Next to this, the Western Ghauts have the greatest rainfall; at Mahableshwar 253 to 300 inches, and on the Tenasserim coast 180 inches fall yearly. The provinces in the North-east receive rain in rather a different manner; the wind which brings the rains to that part of the continent blows from tfche south-west, over the Bay of Bengal, till, meeting the mountains, it is deflected. The prevailing wind, therefore, i:n this region is south-easterly, and from this quarter Bengal and the Gangetic valley receive their rain; when it reaches t ;he mountains in the north-west, it is compelled to part with more of its moisture. Near the sea, where the land is low and the temperature high, very little rain falls; at Kurrachee it was, in 1879, 11*92 inch. In inland districts, as at Peshawur, in 1879, only 55*84 inches fell; whilst the rainfall in Calcutta averages 63; i n Madras, 48*50; in Bombay, 74; in Delhi, 27*5 ; in Meerut, 227; in Lahore, 21 ; in Mooltan, 7; in Benares, 37; in IBellary, 18; in Bangalore, 35; in Poonah, 27; in Belgaum, ■49; in Kamptee, 22 ; in Akyab, 198. The amount of humidity i n the air also varies greatly. Flat hot plains, like Scinde, vvhere there is little or no rain, have an atmosphere almost saturated, and on some of the lower mountain ranges, in 13engal, and in many districts near the coast in Southern Lndia, the air is very damp. But the elevated table-lands of he Deccan and Central India, and the hot sandy plains of 'North-west India, have a dry air during the months of May and June, which blows like a furnace blast, heated and ilesiccated by the burning country over which it has passed ! The north-east monsoon commences gradually in October, and is attended with dry weather throughout the Peninsula .generally, except on the Coromandel coast, where it brings ■ain from the Bay of Bengal, between October and December, after which it is dry until March, when it gives place to variable winds, which last till about June, when the heat is great and the tendency is then from the south. About the end of May the south-west monsoon again sets in, bringing ■ i few showers, known as the lesser rains, before the regular ■ains set in. In the hill stations of Darjeeling, Mussoorie, Nainee-tal, Murree, Simla, and generally in the elevated movinces of the lower ranges of the Himalayas, also at Ootacamund, Conoor, Wellington, Mahableshwar, in the SNeilgherries, and Ghauts—stations at elevations of 5,000 to 7,000 feet—the climate is genial, the rainfall moderate, it