NATUKAIIST IN INDIA. 311 



There is no regular rainy weather at Eawul Pindee, but only 

 the south-west monsoon clouds, as they drop their moisture on 

 the Pinjal, affect the heated atmosphere of the torrid plains 

 below. Then furious storms, accompanied or not by electric 

 discharges, sweep along the north-western frontier of the 

 Punjaub. Sometimes these phenomena assume imposing 

 aspects. The storms are usually preceded by prolonged 

 droughts and successions of intensely hot weather, when an 

 unusually close and oppressive day is characterised by a 

 peculiar stillness of the atmosphere, during which the leaves 

 are seen to droop, and aU animated nature becomes ex- 

 hausted, and the soil is parched ; when, about sunset, a huge 

 dense gray cloud of dust, several miles in breadth, is seen 

 advancing from the north and hugging the mountains on the 

 one side and the plains below, creeping stealthily but steadily 

 onwards, preceded by hot scorching blasts, which raise the 

 thermometer several degrees. The sensations are stifling for 

 a short time, then suddenly the blast feels cool, and at length, 

 as the mass approaches, and the thunder and lightning draw 

 nearer, the dust envelopes you, and for a few minutes all is 

 darkness, when down comes the rain, which the thirsty soil 

 drinks up almost instantaneously, and the glass falls some 

 25° to 30° in the course of a few minutes. 



The cold of the winter months does not begin to affect 

 the leaf until the end of November, when frosty nights, suc- 

 ceeded by delightfully cool days, invite exercise, and strive 

 to recompense the European for. the long summer spent in 

 darkened rooms and under punkas, where he had dragged 

 out a monotonous existence, panting from heat and paUid 

 from want of exposure to the air outside. The generally 

 .bleached aspects of Etiropeans in India, and women in par- 

 ticular, are. doubtless attributable in part or wholly to this 



