Rain and Rail Storms. 



THE operations of nature in India are carried 

 on upon a scale of almost incredible vastness. 

 No description can convey to the mind of persons 

 born in these temperate latitudes the majestic 

 violence of an Indian storm. Dr. C. R. Francis, of 

 the Indian Medical Service, has described some 

 of the meteorological phenomena of India with 

 eloquence and scientific accuracy. " Throughout 

 the length and breadth of India," he writes, " from 

 its lofty mountainous tracts to the mouths of its 

 lordly rivers, in its skies and in its seas, the con- 

 vulsions (and ordinary phenomena even) of nature 

 either attain monstrous proportions or are remark- 

 able for their erratic tendencies. There, famines 

 sweep human beings from the surface of the earth 

 in thousands and in millions. The two greatest 

 pestilences which the world has ever seen find 

 congenial soil in India ; nay, the very home of one 

 of them is there. There, cyclones destroy the 

 strongest and most elaborate work of men's hands, 

 as if the construction was of reeds and the 

 foundations of sand ; the heavens discharge, in 



