Himalayan Journals — Volume 2: Or, Notes of a Naturalist in Bengal, the Sikkim and Nepal Himalayas, the Khasia Mountains, etc.Hooker, Joseph Dalton
History
Himalayan Journals — Volume 2: Or, Notes of a Naturalist in Bengal, the Sikkim and Nepal Himalayas, the Khasia Mountains, etc.
Hooker, Joseph Dalton
Himalaya Mountains -- Description and travel; Natural history -- Himalaya Mountains
On one occasion, and that at night, the dew-point was as low as 11.5
degrees, with a temperature of 66 degrees, a depression rarely
equalled at so low a temperature: this phenomenon was transient, and
caused by the passage of a current of air loaded with dust, whose
particles possibly absorbed the atmospheric humidity. From a
comparison of the night and morning observations of thermometers laid
on grass, the earth, and freely exposed, it appears that the grass
parts with its heat much more rapidly than the earth, but that still
the effect of radiation is slight, lowering its temperature but 2
degrees below that of the freely exposed thermometer.
As compared with the climate of Calcutta, these hills present a
remarkable contrast, considering their proximity in position and
moderate elevation.
The difference of temperature between Calcutta and Birbhoom,
deduced from the sunrise, morning and afternoon observations, amounts
to 4 degrees, which, if the mean height of the hills where crossed by
the road, be called 1,135 feet, will be equal to a fall of one degree
for every 288 feet.
In the dampness of its atmosphere, Calcutta contrasts very remarkably
with these hills; the dew-point on the Hoogly averaging 51.3 degrees,
and on these hills 38 degrees, the corresponding saturation-points
being 0.559 and 0.380.
The difference between sunrise, forenoon and afternoon dew-points at
Calcutta and on the hills, is 13.6 degrees at each observation; but
the atmosphere at Calcutta is relatively drier in the afternoon than
that of the hills; the difference between the Calcutta sunrise and
afternoon saturation-point being 0.449, and that between the hill
sunrise and afternoon, 0.190. The march of the dew-point is thus the
same in both instances, but owing to the much higher temperature of
Calcutta, and the greatly increased tension of the vapour there, the
relative humidity varies greatly during the day.
In other words, the atmosphere of Calcutta is loaded with moisture in
the early morning of this season, and is relatively dry in the
afternoon: in the hills again, it is scarcely more humid at sunrise
than at 3 p.m. That this dryness of the hills is partly due to
elevation, appears from the disproportionately moister state of the
atmosphere below the Dunwah pass.
II. _Abstract of the Meteorological observations taken in the Soane
Valley (mean elevation 422 feet)._
The difference in mean temperature (partly owing to the sun's more
northerly declination) amounts to 2.5 degrees of increase in the
Soane valley, above that of the hills. The range of the thermometer
from day to day was considerably greater on the hills (though fewer
observations were there recorded): it amounted to 17.2 degrees on the
hills, and only 12.8 degrees in the valley. The range from the
maximum to the minimum of each day amounts to the same in both, above
20 degrees. The extreme variations in temperature too coincide within
1.4 degrees.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account