1839.] Lieut. Irwin's Memoir of Afghanistan. 795 



fruits are cultivated to a great extent. Rain in the summer is much 

 deprecated, yet in some parts of Toorkistan showers are neither un- 

 common nor unwelcome even in the end of May. Generally speak, 

 ing, May is a dry month in the countries under our view. June too 

 is dry, and where the rains of Hindoostan extend, the hottest. The 

 heat declines in August in both descriptions of countries. August is 

 in Peshawur a cloudy month, not a rainy, and is dry in all the coun- 

 tries west of the Indus, as is September. October is a dry month both 

 in India and in these countries. In high and mountainous situations 

 snow begins to fall in November, but the chief showers are in Decem- 

 ber and January. 



75. Dews and mists are often little less important to the husband- 

 man than rains. They do not here attract much attention. They 

 are commonest in the autumnal months, or the beginning of winter, 

 and in the warm countries especially, if well watered and of a humid 

 soil. Mooltan and Sindh to the south, and Peshawur to the north, 

 seem the most noted for mists. The dews of Peshawur in August, 

 September, and October, are said to be heavy. In September the 

 people are induced from fear of the effects of the dews, as well as from 

 the chilliness, to cease sleeping on the terraces. The spring there is 

 more dewy than in Hindoostan. With respect to clouds and over- 

 cast weather, the cold countries have more than the warm. The 

 atmosphere of Kushmeer is cloudy during a considerable part of 

 the year ; May and June are its most sunny months, but in July, 

 when it begins to rain in the Punjab, the clouds extend to Kushmeer. 

 In the cold countries in general, clouds are observed to gather from 

 the beginning of October, preparatory to the snows, which are to 

 follow. 



76- On the whole the vast tract here surveyed must be pronounced 

 to have a dry climate, whether we regard the quantity of moisture 

 which falls in the year, or the number of rainy days. The districts 

 which can be called humid are comparatively few and unimportant; 

 the rains even of our Upper Provinces astonish the natives of Afghan- 

 istan. The spring rains are the chief in Peshawur, and the season 

 1809 was a favorable one, yet were there but seven days of heavy rain, 

 and four of light. It would be difficult to form an accurate scale 

 of the dryness and humidity of the various districts already enume- 

 rated, but a conjecture may be formed from the data already 

 given. Khoorasan is on the whole drier than those parts of Afghanis- 

 an not included within it, or than Toorkistan. Bulochistan is un- 

 doubtedly a dry climate. The west of Toorkistan is far drier than 



5 K 



