II. The meteorology of the Bombay Presidency

Abstract

This work consists of four parts—the first dealing with registrations of meteorological phenomena at the Colába Observatory during a period of twenty-seven years; the second with moderately full observations at five military stations in the Bombay Presidency during a period of nineteen years; and the third with large numbers of observations from civil hospitals and revenue stations, being those of selected registers extending over various periods from not less than a fortnight up to a number of years: in this part the phenomena treated are temperature of the ah, winds, and rainfall only; and the extent of territory to which the observations refer includes the whole of the Presidency, bind, and the western half of Rajputána. In the fourth part are discussed the general distribution (as regards both space and season) of temperature and rainfall, and the variations of the wind; first with respect simply to the physical geography of the country, and then in combination with certain theoretical views, the elucidation of which, by means of the dynamical theory of heat and the kinetic theory of gases, occupies much space. Nearly half the memoir is devoted to the work of the Colába Observatory, of the history of which a short sketch is given. The design of this part is to give a compendious account of the results of a long and continuous maintenance of the Observatory, both in the shape of numerical determinations of meteorological elements and of their periodical and other variations, and in throwing light by means of these upon the physical conditions and actions which give rise to the observed relations between different phenomena, and to the variation of these relations with time.