182 MONSOONS. 



lal direction ; and though it may experience some diversi- 

 ties after it reaches the land, its general course over India 

 may still be said to be towards the north-east, till it is ex- 

 hausted on the western and central parts of the peninsula. 

 The provinces in the north-east receive it in a different man- 

 ner : the wind which brings the rains to that part of the 

 continent originally blows from the south-west over the Bay 

 of Bengal, till the mountains of Himmaleh, and those 

 •which join them from the south, stop its progress, and com- 

 pel it to follow their course towards the north-west. The 

 prevailinff wind, therefore, in the region south-west of the 

 Himmalehs is from south-east ; and it is from that quarter 

 that our provinces in Bengal receive their rains. But when 

 the wind has reached so far to the north-west as to meet 

 with the Hindoo Coosh, it is again opposed by that chain 

 of mountains, and turned off along its face towards the 

 west, till it meets the projection of Hindoo Coosh and the 

 range of Solimaun, which prevent its fiuther progress in 

 that direction, or at least compel it to part with the clouds 

 with which it was loaded. The effect of the mountains in 

 stopping the clouds borne by this wind is different in differ- 

 ent places. Near the sea, where the clouds are still in deep 

 mass, part is discharged on the hills and the country beneath 

 them, and part passes up to the north-west ; but part is said 

 to make its way over the first hills, and produce the rains in 

 Thibet. 



The above observations, Mr. Elphinstone continues, will 

 explain, or at least connect the following facts : — The south- 

 west monsoon commences on the Malabar coast in May, 

 and is there very violent ; it is later and more moderate in 

 Mysore ; and the Coromandel coast, covered by the moun- 

 tainous countries on the west, is entirely exempt from it. 

 Farther north the monsoon begins early in June, and loses 

 a good deal of its violence, except in the places influenced 

 by the neighbourhood of the mountains or the sea, where 

 the fall of water is very considerable. About Delhi it does 

 not begin until near the end of June, and the fall of rain is 

 greatly inferior to what is felt at Calcutta or Bombay. In 

 the north of the Punjaub, near the hills, it exceeds that of 

 Delhi ; but in the south of the Punjaub, distant both from 

 the sea and the hills, very little rain falls. The clouds pass 

 with little obstruction over Lower Sinde, but rain more 



