UPPER INDIA. 13 



months which causes the line of greatest mean heat to recede 

 so far from the equator. 



The excessive heat of the plains of Upper India is, then, not 

 due to their geographical position, but is in opposition to the 

 laws of nature as regards the effect of latitude on climate ; and 

 I will endeavour to point out to what circumstances this 

 great heat may be attributed.* Firstly, the excessive heat is 

 due to bare plains, the surfaces of which becoming heated, 

 heat the air coming in contact with them ; and this effect is 

 intensified by the hardened condition of the surface-soil, which 

 does not absorb and radiate heat, but reflects or retains it, 

 as rock or stone would. Secondly, it is caused by surface- 

 drainage, which facilitates the running-off of the rainfall, and 

 prevents its penetrating the soil. 



The bare plains are of two descriptions, the uncultivated 

 and the cultivated. The former are bare throughout the 

 year, except in the rains, when they may have a little grass 

 on them. As I shall more fully describe these uncultivated 

 lands (which, by the bye, are often called unculturable lands) 

 when I point out the causes to which they are due, I shall 

 say no more about them at present than that they are spread 

 over the whole country ; their extent and positions are laid 

 down in the Kevenue Survey maps ; they are attached to dif- 

 ferent villages in fact, there is hardly a village which does 

 not possess some uncultivated land ; and these uncultivated 

 lands are not assessed for revenue to Government. As, how- 

 ever, they produce some grass in the rains, it may be to the 

 interest of the zemindars, when these lands have become 

 impoverished and only produce poor crops, to allow them to 

 remain uncultivated, in that case paying no revenue, to 

 keeping them cultivated and paying some revenue on them. 



* See Appendix A, p. 101. 



