METEOROLOGICAL PHENOMENA IN INDIA. Throughout the
length and breadth of the great contiIndia, from its lofty mountainous tracts to the mouths of its lordly rivers, in its skies and in its seas, the convulsions, and ordinary phenomena even, of nature either attain monstrous proportions, or are remarkable for their erratic nent of
tendencies.
There, famines sweep human beings from the surface of the earth, not in thousands, but in millions. The two greatest pestilences which the world ever saw fiad congenial soils in India; >
METEOROLOGICAL PHENOMENA IN INDIA.
July 1, 1868.]
alleged that the very home There, cyclones destroy
nay, it is there.
is
elaborate
reeds,
of men's hands,
works
as
of one of them, cholera, the
the foundations of sand ; the
and
strongest
and
most
if the construction was of Heavens
than cricket
discharge balls; and
larger feet.f We are much indebted to Dr. Sutherland, Officiating Head of the Medical Department in this Presidency, for placing at our disposal, with a view to its publication in the Indian Medical Gazette, the following account, by Dr. Murray Thompson, of a very remarkable fall of muddy rain, which took place last year at lioorkee and at Nynee Tal in the Himalayas. The following is a short account of this unusual phenomenon* ?" On the 27th of June, 1867, both at Nynee Tal and Roorkee, previous to the fall of muddy rain, a dense yellowish red cloud was observed in the sky. Rain fell, but it was not muddy. On the following day, the 28th, the same peculiarly coloured cloud was seen as early as eight in the morning ; later in the day it was observed to be moving from the south-west to the north-east, and at 5 p. m. it had wholly disappeared in hail storms,
balls of rain
in
ice,* falls, not in inches,
the latter
but in
At Roorkee I noticed that this cloud
direction.
I saw numerous smaller clouds, sometimes of a
was
very high. darker, and sometimes of
paler hue, float under it. The contrast of these lower clouds against the upper yellow red one was very striking, both on account of their colours being different, and their outlines more defined. From eight in the morning till four in the afternoon, the rain fell in short showers, As and the water collected from these was always muddy. might have been expected from the frequent showers, the air with
saturated
was
the
day
and
dry
a
moisture.
wet
bulbs
Several times throughout the The seen to read alike.
were
from the 26th, when it was above its average
height suddenly on the 27th, and continued to fall on the 28ch and 29^h, and as suddenly rose to above its average height late in the morning of the 30th. I barometer
month, fell
for the
somewhat
noticed the state of the barometer before and after the fall of
muddy rain,
but I do not think there is any connection between
the two. "
A specimen of the mud from the rain was examined by the microscope at Nynee Tal by Dr. Hilson, and at Roorkee by myself. It was found in both cases to be composed of inorganic particles, partly amorphous, but mixed with numerous crystals, having their edges much rounded off. Dr. J. A. P. Colles, of the Medical College, Calcutta, also very kindly examined the mud, and his opinion of it was the same as the above. "
The amount of mud contained in each cubic inch of rain was
12-42
*
grains,
Falls of
that every inch of rain which fell
so
of ice have
deposited
taken
place in the west of India in the were witnesses to the fall of large circular blocks which drove every one into their houses during the great hail storm by which Nynee Tal was visited in May, 1856. Some of these blocks weighed nearly 2 lbs., and measured more than 13 inches in course
masses
of hail
storms; and
we
ourselves
preceded by a most remarkable noise aptly compared by Professor Daniell
circumference.
The storm
in the
which has been very
to the
blocks
Heavens,
emptying
of
was
innumerable bags of walnuts in the air. The layers, resembling onions. was abandoned as a sanatarium, on
made up of concentric + The station of Cherrapoonjee were
account of
rainy
the
season.
immense
quantity
aewured 600 inches
or
of rain which fell there
Yule, of the (then Bengal) SO feet ja ouo season !
Lieutenant
during the Eagiueors,
157
149" 1 grains per square foot of surface. The water which wag filtered away from the mud was not at all like ordinary rain water, as it contained chlorides in marked, and sulphates in
appreciable, quantity. Limo was detected in moderate amount, magnesia in traces; but the most curious constituents detected were, in the first place, a salt of ammonia, most likely chloride ; and, secondly, soluble organic matter, in such quantity as rapidly to discolor a solution of permanganate of potash. " I could not determine more in the way of analysis than the above points. I should add that the rain water used for testing was" collected in a clean porcelain basin, and fell in a place quite out of the reach of smoke or other organic impurity. "The explanation of the occurrence of this shower of muddy rain must, I think, be that it was due to a dust-storm which had occurred at a great distance to the south-west, probably in the Bikaneer desert, in the northern part of Rajpootana; and that during this storm, the dust, instead of being, as it usually is, only lifted but a short way from the surface, had, by an air current of exceptional strength and upward direction, been swept aloft to a great altitude, at which it is not an uncommon thing to have a stratum of air moving in a direction quito and
different from that of The above
a
stratum on the earth's surface."
explanation by
Dr.
Thompson is doubtless corAtlantic, and especially in the neighbourhood of the Cape Verd Archipelago, a fine reddish dust, producing an impenetrable haze which occasionally amounts to a dangerous fog, is deposited on the spars and riggings of ships. Although this dust invariably prevails with a north-east, east, or south-east wind, and at seasons when the Harmattan is blowing, it has been concluded that it come3 from Africa, near the Continent of which it is so systematically deposited, mora especially because the coarser grains fall first. But the microscope reveals, in this dust, certain forms of infusorial life which, amongst others from Africa, are peculiar to South America Lieutenant Maury imagines that these are blown up into the air with the whirlwinds, which prevail about the beds of the Amazon and Orinoco rivers, carried over the Equator northwards by upper currents of air, and eventually brought back by the north-east trade, aud deposited on the surface over " which it flows. A singular tally on the winds" is thus the view microscope. It would have been by brought into interesting to compare the solid constituents in the mud, which fell at Nynce Tal, with those of the soil, and in the water in the northern part of Rajpootana. This might still be done if the mud be available, and in sufficient quantity. rect.
On the African side of the
m
length and breadth of the great contiIndia, from its lofty mountainous tracts to the mouths of its lordly rivers, in its skies and in its seas, the convulsions, and ordinary phenomena even, of nature either attain monstrous proportions, or are remarkable for their erratic nent of
tendencies.
There, famines sweep human beings from the surface of the earth, not in thousands, but in millions. The two greatest pestilences which the world ever saw fiad congenial soils in India; >
METEOROLOGICAL PHENOMENA IN INDIA.
July 1, 1868.]
alleged that the very home There, cyclones destroy
nay, it is there.
is
elaborate
reeds,
of men's hands,
works
as
of one of them, cholera, the
the foundations of sand ; the
and
strongest
and
most
if the construction was of Heavens
than cricket
discharge balls; and
larger feet.f We are much indebted to Dr. Sutherland, Officiating Head of the Medical Department in this Presidency, for placing at our disposal, with a view to its publication in the Indian Medical Gazette, the following account, by Dr. Murray Thompson, of a very remarkable fall of muddy rain, which took place last year at lioorkee and at Nynee Tal in the Himalayas. The following is a short account of this unusual phenomenon* ?" On the 27th of June, 1867, both at Nynee Tal and Roorkee, previous to the fall of muddy rain, a dense yellowish red cloud was observed in the sky. Rain fell, but it was not muddy. On the following day, the 28th, the same peculiarly coloured cloud was seen as early as eight in the morning ; later in the day it was observed to be moving from the south-west to the north-east, and at 5 p. m. it had wholly disappeared in hail storms,
balls of rain
in
ice,* falls, not in inches,
the latter
but in
At Roorkee I noticed that this cloud
direction.
I saw numerous smaller clouds, sometimes of a
was
very high. darker, and sometimes of
paler hue, float under it. The contrast of these lower clouds against the upper yellow red one was very striking, both on account of their colours being different, and their outlines more defined. From eight in the morning till four in the afternoon, the rain fell in short showers, As and the water collected from these was always muddy. might have been expected from the frequent showers, the air with
saturated
was
the
day
and
dry
a
moisture.
wet
bulbs
Several times throughout the The seen to read alike.
were
from the 26th, when it was above its average
height suddenly on the 27th, and continued to fall on the 28ch and 29^h, and as suddenly rose to above its average height late in the morning of the 30th. I barometer
month, fell
for the
somewhat
noticed the state of the barometer before and after the fall of
muddy rain,
but I do not think there is any connection between
the two. "
A specimen of the mud from the rain was examined by the microscope at Nynee Tal by Dr. Hilson, and at Roorkee by myself. It was found in both cases to be composed of inorganic particles, partly amorphous, but mixed with numerous crystals, having their edges much rounded off. Dr. J. A. P. Colles, of the Medical College, Calcutta, also very kindly examined the mud, and his opinion of it was the same as the above. "
The amount of mud contained in each cubic inch of rain was
12-42
*
grains,
Falls of
that every inch of rain which fell
so
of ice have
deposited
taken
place in the west of India in the were witnesses to the fall of large circular blocks which drove every one into their houses during the great hail storm by which Nynee Tal was visited in May, 1856. Some of these blocks weighed nearly 2 lbs., and measured more than 13 inches in course
masses
of hail
storms; and
we
ourselves
preceded by a most remarkable noise aptly compared by Professor Daniell
circumference.
The storm
in the
which has been very
to the
blocks
Heavens,
emptying
of
was
innumerable bags of walnuts in the air. The layers, resembling onions. was abandoned as a sanatarium, on
made up of concentric + The station of Cherrapoonjee were
account of
rainy
the
season.
immense
quantity
aewured 600 inches
or
of rain which fell there
Yule, of the (then Bengal) SO feet ja ouo season !
Lieutenant
during the Eagiueors,
157
149" 1 grains per square foot of surface. The water which wag filtered away from the mud was not at all like ordinary rain water, as it contained chlorides in marked, and sulphates in
appreciable, quantity. Limo was detected in moderate amount, magnesia in traces; but the most curious constituents detected were, in the first place, a salt of ammonia, most likely chloride ; and, secondly, soluble organic matter, in such quantity as rapidly to discolor a solution of permanganate of potash. " I could not determine more in the way of analysis than the above points. I should add that the rain water used for testing was" collected in a clean porcelain basin, and fell in a place quite out of the reach of smoke or other organic impurity. "The explanation of the occurrence of this shower of muddy rain must, I think, be that it was due to a dust-storm which had occurred at a great distance to the south-west, probably in the Bikaneer desert, in the northern part of Rajpootana; and that during this storm, the dust, instead of being, as it usually is, only lifted but a short way from the surface, had, by an air current of exceptional strength and upward direction, been swept aloft to a great altitude, at which it is not an uncommon thing to have a stratum of air moving in a direction quito and
different from that of The above
a
stratum on the earth's surface."
explanation by
Dr.
Thompson is doubtless corAtlantic, and especially in the neighbourhood of the Cape Verd Archipelago, a fine reddish dust, producing an impenetrable haze which occasionally amounts to a dangerous fog, is deposited on the spars and riggings of ships. Although this dust invariably prevails with a north-east, east, or south-east wind, and at seasons when the Harmattan is blowing, it has been concluded that it come3 from Africa, near the Continent of which it is so systematically deposited, mora especially because the coarser grains fall first. But the microscope reveals, in this dust, certain forms of infusorial life which, amongst others from Africa, are peculiar to South America Lieutenant Maury imagines that these are blown up into the air with the whirlwinds, which prevail about the beds of the Amazon and Orinoco rivers, carried over the Equator northwards by upper currents of air, and eventually brought back by the north-east trade, aud deposited on the surface over " which it flows. A singular tally on the winds" is thus the view microscope. It would have been by brought into interesting to compare the solid constituents in the mud, which fell at Nynce Tal, with those of the soil, and in the water in the northern part of Rajpootana. This might still be done if the mud be available, and in sufficient quantity. rect.
On the African side of the
m
