Page:Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (IA journalofstrait781881roya).pdf/55

 NOTES ON THE RAINFALL OF SINGAPORE.

The amount of Rainfall in Singapore having been a topic very frequently discussed, it is with some diffidence the accompanying tables are submitted. Any one who applies himself to the study of this subject, cannot but feel, at the very threshold of his labours, how little he has to help him, and how difficult it is to arrive at any definite conclusion.

For some years back, I have tried to collect as much information as was possible on the rainfall of this Settlement, but find that very little indeed can be done in this matter. Whatever records of rainfall may have been kept in times past, all that are at pre- sent available, are:—


 * 1) Statements of the number of rainy days in each year, from 1820 to 1823.
 * 2) A Statement of Rainfall for the year 1835.
 * 3) Observations made at the Singapore Observatory, for the years 1841 to 1844, and for the first nine months of 1845.
 * 4) After a large gap of seventeen years, Mr. J. D. VAUGHAN'S Observations, from 1862 to 1866, whose returns were published quarterly in the local Government Gazette.
 * 5) Meteorological Observations, which were commenced by the late Dr. RANDELL, Principal Civil Medical Officer, Straits Settlements, in 1860, and which are maintained to the present time. The Monthly Returns of these were published for many years in the Government Gazette, but of late years they have been discontinued. The P. C. M. O., however, supplies the press, public institutions, &c., with a yearly copy of Monthly Returns, both of Meteorological Observa-