Note 408 — APPENDIX

This is a most important point, generally wholly neglected in India, where I have usually seen the thermometer hung in good shade, but exposed to reflected heat from walls, gravel walks, or dry earth. I am accustomed from experience to view all extreme temperatures with great suspicion, on this and other accounts. It is very seldom that the temperature of the free shaded air rises much above 100°, except during hot winds, when the lower stratum only of atmosphere (often loaded with hot particles of sand), sweeps over the surface of a soil scorched by the direct rays of the sun.