468 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXIL 



received was sufficient, as already remarked in connection with cattle 

 preservation, to produce a good crop of grass and a fair harvest. 

 Whether the treelessness already referred to, which characterises the 

 rest of the Province, affects the rainfall or not; the fact that even in 

 normal years there is a very marked difference in the amount gauged 

 in the north of Jhalawad and that which is received in the Gir forest. 

 Taking the whole Province together, the rainfall perhaps averages 

 about 20 inches. But it is no uncommon occurrence, even in 

 otherwise normal seasons, for the north-eastern corner of Jhalawad 

 CO receive half or even less than half that amount. As compared 

 with Gujarat from Ahmedabad southward, therefore, it will be seen 

 that the incidence of the monsoon in this Peninsula is an uncertain 

 and very variable factor, and a similar variation is also noticeable in 

 the temperature statistics. While the coast-line of the south-west 

 coast has a climate considerably cooler than Bombay or Karachi 

 during the hot weather and monsoon, the internal parts of the 

 Peninsula almost, and in some parts quite, equal the maxima record- 

 ed heat-temperatures of Deesa and Ahmedabad. xit the same time, 

 being relatively drier, the heat is just as bearable as, and less 

 exhausting than, that in the more central portions of Gujarat, and 

 the climate generally of Halar and Jhalawad may be said to 

 resemble more closely that of Pajputana to the east of the Aravallis. 

 Frost is by no means uncommon in either December, January or 

 February, and is annually dreaded hj the cultivator whenever the 

 monsoon has given favourable prospects for the cotton crop. It 

 may be mentioned that the Province is singularly devoid of perennial 

 rivers. It would be approximately true to say that there is not a 

 single perennial river in Kathiawar outside the range of the Gir 

 Forest Within that area, however, there are several streams, in 

 which by the way the fishing is by no means to be despised, which 

 never dry up, and water is there, as a rule, found very close to the 

 surface. Perhaps it is that circumstance, coupled with the decay of 

 vegetation which perennially goes on in a neglected forest area, such 

 as the Gir, which accounts for the virulence of the malaria which 

 characterises the forest area in the months of November, December 

 and January. It used to be almost certain death to camp from 

 November to March within the confines of the Gir area. Elsewhere 

 the health statistics of the Province would, if thej existed, yield a 

 fairly favourable record. 



The following notes and descriptions of the actual collecting stations 

 are given by Mr. C. A. Crump : — 



" In making this collection in Junagadh State, my work has been enor- 

 mously simplified by the unfailing zeal of the Administrator, Mr. L. Eobert- 

 son, I.C.S., who has throughout attended to every detail of the tour, also 

 placing at my disposal everything necessary to help my work. 



Acknowledgments are also due to Mr. E. Brook-Fox and Mr. Boyd, Super- 

 intendent of Police, for help in various ways. 



