790 Lieut. Irwin's Memoir of Afghanistan. QOct. 



the embassy in that country correspond to this opinion. In the 

 winter the chief winds in Jellalabad, Koonur, Bajour, and Peshawur, 

 is the west ; and next to it the north, which in Bajour is in that season 

 productive of great cold. In Peshawur and Bajour, as in our pro- 

 vinces, are occasional blasts during the spring and summer months ; in 

 the former place they blow from the west and south-west. 



67- Even in Bokhara hot winds are known, but they are confined 

 to a few weeks in the year, and a few hours in the day, and altogether 

 are little regarded. This is equally true of those in Hirat, but the hot 

 winds of Seestan are severe. Those of Peshawur have been already 

 mentioned (see paragraph 49.) Jellalabad, which on the whole has a 

 cooler climate, has severer hot winds than Peshawur, because of its 

 lying to the west, or leeward of the Bedoulut hills (see paragraph 50.) 

 The wind from them is moderated in its bad qualities before it reaches 

 the city of Jellalabad. Within the tract in which it is generated 

 it is a true Simoom or pestilential wind, and many instances are 

 given of its proving fatal to travellers. On the night of the 21st June, 

 the Cabul Mission experienced a wind of the most intolerable heat ; it 

 blew from the low hills on which Attock is situated, then bearing 

 south. The hottest winds appear to proceed from, or blow over, low 

 hills, whose rocks and stones acquire a higher temperature than the 

 soil of the plains. In the warm parts of Bulochistan, hot winds of very 

 great severity blow. Instances are few of their proving fatal, but not 

 unfrequently they scorch the shoulders and backs of travellers. 



Section III. — Of the Rains. 



68. In India from the northern mountains to Cape Comorin, the 

 grand rains are those which beginning about midsummer, continue 

 to the middle or end of autumn. The monsoon of the Coromandel 

 Coast forms an exception, caused by peculiar circumstances. The rains, 

 so called by way of eminence, on an average of seasons begin in Cal- 

 cutta in the first week of June, in Futthgurh about the 20th of that 

 month, and in the intermediate situations they are later, according 

 as the place is situated more or less to the west of Calcutta. This 

 rule is true in a majority of places and seasons. In our progress 

 westward, it is also found that the rains are more scanty. The annual 

 inches of water in Calcutta, are thrice those in Delhi. It is only in the 

 lower parts of Bengal, that in the same season rains fall in the four 

 successive Hinduwee months, Usarh, Sawun, Bhador, Koonar, of 



