341 



trees and animals are then brought clown by the floods from the 

 mountains: some of the former different from those in the plains of 

 Guzerat. The Nerbudda seldom occasions mischief; the over- 

 flowing streams of the Dahder, and some of the smaller rivers, 

 frequently produce dreadful calamities within a few miles of their 

 fertile banks. These floods seem to be very little influenced by the 

 rain which falls on the plains, they are always occasioned by 

 mountain torrents. There cerlainly is not so great a fall of rain 

 during the wet season in Guzerat as on the island of Bombay, 

 and the southern parts of the Malabar coast; where the periodical 

 rains generally commence and terminate at the same period, as we 

 experienced at Surat and Baroche. The setting in of the rain, 

 with the south-west monsoon, usually takes place before the middle 

 of June, and continues, with more or less violence, and unequal falls 

 of rain, for about four months: the largest quantity always falls in 

 July. From a calculation made and published, it appears that on 

 the island of Bombay, for eight successive years, from 1780, the 

 general average of rain in July, was twenty-two inches, and the 

 most that fell in any one day was six inches. The quantity of 

 rain which fell in each of those years at Bombay, being thus ascer- 

 tained, may serve as an estimate for ten degrees of latitude, from 

 10° to 20° on the west side of the Gaut mountains. 



