THE INDIAN HOT SEASON. 73 



All over the plains of Northern India, as is well 

 known, periods of intense heat are common, indeed 

 according to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, "The 

 heat of the great plain of Northern India is not 

 surpassed by any other part of the earth, rising 

 in the hottest months to more than 110 Fahr." * 

 The meaning of this we take to be that the intense 

 solar temperatures are here kept up longer than else- 

 where. 



Speaking on the same subject, Captain Rice, the 

 well-known Indian sporting authority/remarks respecting 

 the intense heats experienced during the hot season 

 in India that 



" It is almost impossible for those who have never ex- 

 perienced it to conceive how terribly hot the rocks and stony 

 ground exposed to the sun become. So much so, that the 

 hand cannot be kept on one particular spot for even five 

 seconds, without one feeling glad enough to remove it. So 

 the guns, if placed on the ground for even a few minutes, 

 become so dreadfully hot that it is distinctly painful to handle 

 the metal. If obliged to lie, or sit down, on hot rocks, it is 

 absolutely necessary to have some protection first spread over 

 the burning ground." f 



Then as regards cases of occasional extreme tempera- 

 tures occurring in the temperate zone, we may content 

 ourselves with a single instance reported at Omaha in 

 the United States. The City of Omaha, it seems, 



"had the thermometer at 120 F., in the coolest places to 

 be found, for several days, during the summer of 1874: 

 while the winter temperature of the same years sent the 



* Enclyp. Brit., Qth Edit., Vol. xi, p. 829. 



f Tiger Shooting in India, by William Rice, Lieut. 25th Bombay 

 N.I. 1887. 



