1839.] Lieut. Irwin's Memoir of Afghanistan. 793 



loss to the former. Neither did it occur in or near any place where 

 the Mission was, that is between Beekaneer and Dera-Ismael Khan, 

 but in those latter countries the want of it is productive of little or no 

 inconvenience. 



72. In the same season it fell abundantly in Peshawur, a province 

 where a great proportion of the rubbee depends upon it ; and all the 

 countries now treated of, with the exception to be mentioned, enjoy it 

 with tolerable regularity. It falls according to circumstances in the 

 form of rain, sleet, or snow ; and with respect to the time it may 

 be expected, the chief showers are (as in England) rather in the 

 second than the first half of winter. Although the time varies in dif- 

 ferent years, it is seldom that it fails altogether. The consequence of 

 such a failure is dearth, sometimes famine. Where it used to fall 

 as rain, the crops die from drought, or are killed by the severity of 

 the frost that usually accompanies dry winters; where it used to fall 

 as snow, the crops wanting this protection are exposed to the frost, 

 and the hopes of the spring which partly rested on the melting of the 

 snows in the hills are disappointed. There is a favorite proverb in 

 Cabul, " let Cabul be filled with snow rather than gold." The quan- 

 tity which falls is very various, according to season and places. The 

 highest and most mountainous places appear to receive most, but this 

 rule alone does not comprehend all cases. In Cabul the number 

 of snowy days in the three months of winter is computed at sixteen. 

 If we may form any judgment from the hints given us in Forster's 

 Journal, this is more than occurs in Khoorasan. In the Punjab this 

 rain is certainly of much inferior importance, perhaps it is of inferior 

 amount, and less certain in its periodical return. But that quarter 

 where it is most uncertain and most insignificant, is the same in which 

 the summer rains are so scanty, and in which the Mission spent the 

 depth of the winter 1808-9 (see paragraphs 70 and 71) being Mooltan, 

 and a certain distance around it. In the Daman this rain is suffici- 

 ently regular, and of great importance. In nether Sindh, although of 

 very little importance, it falls in most years. It may be observed 

 that it extends far beyond the limits of the present field, to the Helles- 

 pont and the Russian frontier. The same is the chief rain in the 

 north-west of Arabia. In none of the intermediate countries, whether 

 cold or warm, is it lost. It is said to be but scanty in Yarkund, but 

 with respect to many other parts of Chinese Toorkistan we possess 

 little information on this, or most other particulars. 



73. The third rain we may distinguish, is that of the spring. It is 

 perhaps the most important of the whole in the countries lying west 



