Rainfall and climate in India / by Sir Joseph Fayrer.

  • Joseph Fayrer
Date:
[1881]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

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

    34/46 page 26
    /3S 26 tropics, through which I have passed, I have found that the atmosphere has been so saturated with moisture that at night, when the temperature has become reduced and condensation has taken place, the deck of the steam vessel would be absolutely wet, as if recently washed, owing to the deposition of dew or moisture upon the surface. (Applause.) Dep.-Surgeon-General N. Chevers, C.I.E.—I was for a long time a near neighbour of Sir Joseph Fayrer’s in India. I have been at Chittagong, where we had about 160 inches of rainfall in the year. It is pleasant to re- member that, the very first, I believe, of the numerous illustrations of natural science in every part of India by which Sir Joseph Fayrer has enriched our literature, was a contribution to the meteorology of Burmah, in which he undertook the very difficult task of obtaining for a specified time, the hourly temperature, the rainfall, and the barometrical readings of that district. He and Mr. J. Bedford were the only men who were the actual pioneers in this work. Then followed what was certainly a violent measure on the part of the Government, and I am afraid that Sir Joseph Fayrer and Mr. Bedford are to be charged with bringing it down upon us. The Government sent us a most terrific paper, upon which already hard- worked men were expected to register the dry and wet bulb and barometrical readings, and the direction of the wind, six times a day, to observe also during the night what were the prevailing winds ; and, at the end of the 24 hours, to register the rainfall. I am now speaking of two and thirty years ago, and some of the results were very curious. For instance, some barometrical readings, which Mr. Bedford told me had been sent to him, were of a very wonderful and surprising character ; upon his inquiring whether they could possibly be true readings, the observer wrote back to him, raying, £' You are employed in registering atmospheric phenomena ; this is an atmospheric phenomeno7i, and you must register it.” There was one pheno- menon for which I can vouch. A surgeon who was very much overworked, made the duty over to the sub-assistant surgeon, who, I am afraid, made it over to a native doctor, who observed that a certain wind blew “ due east-west ” for a whole week. (Laughter.) This was registered in one of the documents, and there may have been well nigh as little accuracy in some of the other conjectural registers. It was my duty, as secretary to the medical board, to make over the whole mass of these records to one of the brothers Slagen- thweit, who afterwards died in India, who, I believe, was unable to publish them ; still, many tf them were true and accurate documents, very carefully compiled by such men as Sir Joseph Fayrer and Mr. Bedford; and, if they could be recovered now, they would give some very curious and interesting information. This was all before the time of Mr. Blanford. There was one point which interested me very much in Sir Joseph Fayrer’s paper, and that was the allusion made to the effects of tree vegetation on the rainfall. I remember one or two spots which were wide wastes of sand swept bare by the mighty river the Brahmaputra, and which were left entirely without the appearance of vegetation for several months in the year; 'but we
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