178 E. Lydekker — Snowfall of 1878, in Kashnir. [Not. 



4. Snow-fall o/'1878, in Kashmir. — JSi/ R. Lydekker. 

 (Abstract.) 



This was a short paper on the unusual snow-fall o£ the past winter in 

 the Kashmir Himalayas ; the author mentioned that many of the passes 

 were still blocked with snow in the late summer, and also referred to the 

 great destruction of animal life caused by this unusual quantity of snow. 



Mr. Blanfoed said that the excessive snow-fall referred to by 

 Mr. Lydekker, seemed to have prevailed throughout the outer Himalayas, 

 and suggested that this might have been the cause of the comparatively 

 low temperature observed in India during the last hot season. 



Dr. Catlet observed that there was a great variability at the time of 

 the autumn snow-fall ; he had crossed the Zogi-la in December, when it was 

 still free from snow, while in other years it was thickly covered at a much 

 earlier period. 



The paper will be published in the Journal, Part II. 



5. A New I'rdhrit Grammar hy Chanda. — I^y De. A. F. Rudolf 



HOERNLE. 



The Prakrit Grammar which I have the pleasure to exhibit to the So- 

 ciety to-night, was given to me a few months ago by my friend. Pandit 

 R{im Misra of Banaras. It came originally from some place in the State 

 of Alwar. There is at present, I believe, only one other copy of this work 

 known. It is in the possession of Dr. Rajendralala Mitra, and is, as I am 

 informed by him, not complete. I have not seen it myself. The copy, in 

 my possession, has every appearance of being a complete one ; for it con- 

 tains rules on all the various forms of Prakrit (including the Apabhramsa) 

 which are usually treated of in Prakrit Grammars. 



My MS. closes with the usual formula, containing the name of the 

 work and of its author. The name of the latter is simply Ghanda (^^). 

 That of the former is variously given. At the end of the whole work, and 

 of the first chapter it is simply lahshana, " characteristic" or " mark" ; at 

 the end of the second chapter it is prdJcrita lakshana " Prakrit characteris- 

 tics" ; at the end of the third chajoter it is prdkrita praMsa " elucidation 

 of the Prakrit" ; the latter being the same name, which also Vararuchi's 

 well-known Prakrit Grammar bears. 



The work is perhaps the shortest that I have met with on Prakrit 

 Grammar. The whole of it is contained on 19 leaves. It is divided into 

 four chapters. The first chapter is on declension (vihliahtividJidnam) . It 

 contains 45 rules, and treats of the declension of nouns, pronouns and 

 numerals. Most of the rules throughout the Grammar have a short com- 



