28 WANDERINGS OF A 



sometimes a foot in breadth, and from their strange appear- 

 ance on the highway are very apt to frighten horses. 



Among the dried-up watercourses running from the moun- 

 tains, good specimens of agate are met with, and I have occa- 

 sionally seen a small onyx from the same situations. 



In summer the temperature is very equable, the heat 

 never so great as to necessitate the use of punkhas or therm- 

 antidotes ; * and in Winter the cold is never so severe as to 

 require a fire. The monsoon terminates in October, when 

 the cold weather sets in, lasting until March or April. Then 

 the heat begins to be felt, and nature pants for rain : the 

 plains and mountains present a sunburnt and desolate ap- 

 pearance ; at length clouds collect in the east, and the mon- 

 soon bursts with great violence. For some time previous 

 there is lightning every night, and the atmosphere feels close 

 and heavy, — a iierce wind then rises, tearing the thatch off 

 the houses, and sending clouds of dust, dense and suffocating, 

 into the rooms. Bang go doors and windows — distant 

 thunder is heard, and the dark mass of cloud is lighted up by 

 vivid flashes of lightning, — the air, at first hot and dry, be- 

 comes cool and grateful, — the dust suddenly subsides, and 

 the peculiar smell from the plains tells that the longed-for 

 rain is coming. At last big drops fall, louder and nearer 

 sounds the " artUlery of Heaven," as if all the ordnance of 

 British India were roaring around ! Gradually the storm- 

 cloud sweeps away — the thunder dies in the distance, and a 

 steady down-pour of rain sets in for days. 



During the monsoon the temperature in the shade ranges 

 from 75° to 85° Fahrenheit ; vegetation progresses rapidly — 

 the mountains becoming clothed with verdure in a few days. 



* A machine, resembling that used in winnowing corn, by which a current 

 of air is forced on a damp matting suspended in front of the door. 



