FORESTS OF GORAKHPUR AND NEPAL TERAI 231 



distinguishable to the ear, deafened by the combined 

 and terrific racket. The hail soon flattened everything 

 into the ground, every green herb and every leaf disap- 

 pearing under heaps of hailstones ; and presently the 

 ground became a lake of water, running away towards 

 the natural outlets in big rivers. Luckily it never rose 

 more than a foot where the camp was pitched, and soon 

 ran away to hollower places. The extreme force of the 

 tornado lasted about a quarter of an hour only ; and it 

 then rapidly subsided, the black wall moving away as it 

 came, but leaving desolation behind it. 



Many villagers came shivering to help to re-erect the 

 soaked tent and cut passages for the water. They com- 

 plained that all their crops had been destroyed, their 

 cattle killed or lost, and the houses flattened. The night 

 was fine, not a trace in the sky of the storm, and the stars 

 shone brilliantly. Next day we marched on, and ascer- 

 tained that the width of the track made across the country 

 was only half a mile. It pursued a straight course south- 

 eastward, and outside its area the com was standing all 

 right, and only slightly laid in places. Along the line 

 of destruction everything was flattened and not a vestige 

 of green to be seen, the ground being nothing but yellow 

 slime and cut up by water-courses. The zamindars were 

 not long in bringing their case before the Collector sahib, 

 and the paternal Government came rapidly to the front 

 \vith material assistance to the ruined agriculturists, and 

 remitted also all rent and taxes. There is usually a 

 period of winter rain at this season, when the wheat and 

 barley and flax are sown, very necessary for watering the 

 parched ground and to sustain life in the kharif or winter 

 crop. It is often, however, very scanty, and not continued 

 like the bar sat or summer rainy season, which comes when 

 the rabi or summer crops are sown. 



