110 BURSTING OF THE INDIAN MONSOON. 



from the Indian Ocean, and advance towards the N.E., 

 gathering and thickening as they approach the land. After 

 some threatening days, the monsoon generally sets in during 

 the night. It is attended by such a tremendous storm, as 

 can scarcely be imagined by those who have only seen that 

 phenomenon in a temperate climate. It generally begins 

 with violent blasts of wind, which are succeeded by floods 

 of rain. For some hours lightning is seen almost without 

 intermission, in vivid and successive flashes which exhibit 

 objects in all the brightness of day. During all this time 

 the distant thunder never ceases to roll, and is only silenced 

 by some nearer peal, which bursts on the ear with a sudden 

 and tremendous crash, as can scarcely fail to strike the most 

 insensible heart with awe. To persons who have long resided 

 in India these storms lose much of their grandeur, yet they 

 sometimes rise to such a pitch as to make an impression on 

 those most habituated to them. I have been told by a 

 gentleman who had been some time in Malabar, the province 

 most distinguished for the violence of the monsoon, that he 

 heard a clap of thunder which produced a silence of a minute 

 in a large party of officers, and made part of the company 

 turn pale. At length the thunder ceases, and nothing is 

 heard but the continuous pouring of the rains, and the rush- 

 ing of the rising streams. This lasts for some days, after 

 which the sky clears, and discovers the face of Nature 

 changed, as if by enchantment. The earth is covered by a 

 sudden, but luxuriant verdure ; the air is pure and delicious ; 

 and the sky varied with clouds. From this time the rain 

 falls at intervals, for about a month ; when it comes on again 

 with great violence ; and in July the rains are at their height. 

 During the third month they rather diminish, but are still 

 heavy, and in September they gradually abate, and are often 

 suspended till near the end of the month, when they depart 

 amidst thunders and tempests, as they came." * 



* Accotint of the Kingdom of Cabul, etc., by the Hon. Mountstewart 

 Elphinstone, 2nd edit. 1819, Vol. i, pp. 203 to 206. 



