A treatise on the public health, climate, hygeine [sic], and prevailing diseases, of Bengal and the North-West Provinces / By Kenneth Mackinnon.
- MacKinnon, Kenneth
- Date:
- 1848
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A treatise on the public health, climate, hygeine [sic], and prevailing diseases, of Bengal and the North-West Provinces / By Kenneth Mackinnon. Source: Wellcome Collection.
88/438 page 50
![CLIMATH. diflFers iu vari- ous jiarts of the country. Peculiarities of Of the north west. Local peculi- arities. [chap II. the vast tract of country of whicli I have offered so imperfect a general description : the prevailing winds, the fall of rain, the quality of the soil, the level of the lands above the water, the state of vegetation—all these things differ greatly at the two ex- tremities, the differences becoming less marked from either as we approach the centre. The winds blowing up the Hay of Bengal and presailing in the lower provinces, are saturated considerably with moisture ; rain falls there in great abundance, about seventy inches in the year; the soil is alluvial, low ly’mg, greatly intersected with various receptacles for uater, and cover- ed with verdure ; the vegetation is rank and luxuriant, and the rays of the sun, being .or. cal, strike with great intensity on the earth—but the bent ismoditied by the other circumstances men- tioned. Far to the North West all is to be found the reverse of this; the winds are dry and parching, the fall of rain is scanty and less regular (scarce twenty inches fall on an average on the banks of the Sutlege), the soil is less alluvial and more dry and mineral in character, the rays of the sun fall more at an angle, but this is counterbalanced by the scanty vegeta- tion in the hot months, and distance from the sea. In the rains, however, vegetation progresses with perlectly wonderful rapi- dity ; the latid generally lies higher above the level of the water courses, but to this there are many exceptions, and it would be a great mistake to suppose that there are no inun- dated lands in the Upper Provinces. It is only in comparison they are less, and in comparison also that fewer suffer from them ; for, besides the mere rain that falls on the plains, the in- undations are produced by the swelling of the rivers, having their sources high on the mountain ranges. Before ])roceeding to the particular sviltject of climate, I may mention, that besides the circumstances noticed as j>roduc- ing different effects, there are others which act locally and ])eculiarly. * llumbolt, m his beautiful essay on climate, has shewn how the isothermal line is changed by various circumstances, iude- peudeut of mere latitude.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b2870874x_0088.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
