AND METEOROLOGY OF DUKHUN. 189 



are many instances of its being violent. At these times it is exceedingly exhausting 

 to the frame ; and few old Indians are robust enough to bear to sit exposed to its 

 direct action for any continuance. The easterly winds are characterized by their 

 extreme dryness ; the lips chap, the exposed parts of the skin are cut, and become 

 harsh and scaly ; windows, doors, and joiner's work shrink, and present numerous 

 interstices ; and to sleep exposed to the night easterly wind is to risk the loss of a 

 limb or a whole side. With these exceptions the winds are usually agreeable to the 

 feelings and of moderate force. 



The hot winds (that is to say, a wind blowing over a heated extensive surface), so 

 well known and complained of in the interior of the Indian Peninsula and in Hin- 

 doostan, are of limited duration within my range of observation. They are from the 

 north-north-west to west, and occur in March and April. It is to be observed, that 

 the same westerly wind which on the Ghats may be passably cool and agreeable, will 

 at Ahmednuggur, and at places more to the eastward, become a hot wind. The in- 

 habitants of Poona and its neighbourhood are little incommoded by hot winds ; and 

 in my registers the records of their occurrence, even on my eastern boundary, are too 

 limited to constitute a marked feature. 



I must not omit to notice, that in these very months of the hot winds for five years 

 a most unaccountable wind blew for a day or two from the north-north-west to the 

 west-north-west so severely cold as to be injurious to vegetation, and intense enough 

 to benumb the hands and feet. At Yagrah, near the source of the Mota river, on the 

 nth of March 1825, at sunrise, the young shoots of plants were nipped as if by a 

 frost, although the thermometer was down only to 42°* 10 Fahr. On the 9th of 

 March 1826, the thermometer was at 58° at sunrise ; the cold intense, no wind, but 

 a westerly wind at 4 p.m. On the 13th of March 1827, atTacklee near Ahmednuggur, 

 a fresh west-north-west wind was so cold at sunrise, that I could not extend the 

 fingers of my bridle hand, and my people had not been able to sleep during the night 

 from the want of warm covering. In 1828 intense cold occurred on the 2nd of Fe- 

 bruary at Barlonee, on the Seena river, but without wind. On the 29th of February, 

 whilst driving from Poona to Karleh before daylight, my limbs were positively stiff- 

 ened by a cold north-west wind. In 1829, at Hurreechundurghur, on the 4th of 

 April, in the midst of the hot season, the cold was so great, with a west-north-west 

 wind blowing, that a sheet, blanket, and counterpane were insufficient protection, and 



I was necessitated to rise in the night and put on a flannel dressing-gown to ensure 

 comfortable feelings. In 1830 this wind occurred on the 2nd of March at Poona, at 



I I P.M., and continued all night. It is difficult to assign a cause for these transitory 

 cold winds at the commencement or in the midst of the hot season. 



Those curious whirlwinds, noticed by all travellers in Africa, and which in the 

 deserts are not only inconvenient but dangerous, are of common occurrence in Duk- 

 hun in the hot months. A score or more columns of dust, in the form of a speaking 

 trumpet or water spout, may be seen at one time chasing over the treeless plains. 



