90 A Sportswoman in India 



forking across the sky in lurid streaks, shimmering on 

 and on in white sheets, and entirely illuminating my 

 bedroom, so that I undressed by no additional light. 

 Byron's storm at Chimeri could not have surpassed 

 this. 



Far along 



From peak to peak, the rattling crags among 

 Leaps the live thunder ! Not from one lone cloud, 

 But every mountain now hath found a tongue, 

 And Jura answers through her misty shroud 

 Back to the joyous Alps, who call to her aloud ! 

 And this is in the night : Most glorious night ! 

 Thou wert not sent for slumber ! let me be 

 A sharer in thy fierce and far delight, 

 A portion of the tempest and of thee ! 



The rugged Himalayas are a source of food and 

 health to the Indian people, for they collect and store 

 up water for the hot plains below. Throughout 

 the summer vast quantities of moisture are exhaled 

 from the distant tropical seas. This moisture gathers 

 into vapour and is carried northward by the monsoon, 

 or regular wind, which sets in from the south in the 

 month of June. 



The awful heat in the plains has been growing daily 

 more unendurable ; driven almost to the last extremity 

 by depression, the Englishmen from bungalows and 

 barracks gaze out into the burning compounds, search- 

 ing the sky for one sign of coming rain, while with 

 famine staring them in the face the natives call upon 

 their gods. And when at last the first drops actually 

 fall, every window and door is thrown open to hear 



