1904.] 0. Little — The recent excessive heat in Bengal. 13 



the cloud appeared and the storm failed to develop, heavy betting be- 

 gan amongst the people with large odds against rainfall. 



I have seen occasional references to the continued absence of rainfall 

 in the newspapers, and in a few of these remarks were made as to the 

 failure of thunderstorms. As an example of these I may give the fol- 

 lowing extract from the Bengalee. ** The long continued drought and 

 the peculiar character of the clouds which only vanished in dust storms, 

 were causing great anxiety. The villagers have suffered most. Those 

 who live in towns have very little idea of the commodity which the poor 

 rural people call water." 



"The spell of the season was broken yesterday (May 25th) by a 

 series of thunderclaps, and the showers that followed both during the day 

 and night were very soothing. The change in the atmosphere wrought 

 by the downpour is being well enjoyed." 



I might continue this paper by commenting on some of the pecu- 

 liarities of the thunderstorms of the past season, more especially of those 

 which accompanied the important change about the 25th of May. That 

 change began in the east on the 24th, passed over Calcutta between the 

 evening of the 25th and the evening of the 26th. But its influence on 

 the weather in the western districts of Bengal could not, in my opinion, 

 be fully estimated or accounted for without reference to important wea- 

 ther changes then in progress in Western and Central India. These 

 changes are shown in the table above by the low temperature in South- 

 ern India on May 19th or 23rd, in Central India between the 22nd and 

 28th, and in the western districts of Bengal during the closing days of 

 that month. I think, however, it will be better to defer consideration 

 of these matters to another communication. 



