1851.] Floods in India of 1 84 9 . 189 



Hail-storms usually occur in our dry — most frequently in our hot 

 weather in India : the most severe hail-storm yet recorded for the year 

 1849, was that at Jaulnah on the 15th January, though many of much 

 severity happened all over Lower Bengal in the months of April and 

 May. Those of the 3rd of the month last named prevailed all over 

 India, from Ootacamund to Peshawar. A very severe hail storm 

 occurred at Bassein on the 2nd June. The Malwa hail-storm of the 

 6th and 7th June, was unusually late for the season. We now find 

 heavy hail falling at Mahabaleshwar for three days on end, on the 27th, 

 28th and 29th July — during the very wettest of the season — without 

 thunder or lightning or storm. 



These results have been thrown together with a view of conveying 

 all the information that can be collected from all parts of India over 

 the heaviest of the rainy season : and imperfect as they are, compared 

 to what they might readily be made, we venture to say that a much 

 larger amount of information has been conveyed by them than is to be 

 found in any single paper or in any similar space. Papers on similar 

 subjects are now issued by the Greenwich Observatory, quarterly, like 

 the Chancellor's Accounts ; and the Government of India would be 

 conferring a service on the public were the example set at home to be 

 copied by them. 



The season along the North West Frontier from this time forward 

 presented the most anomalous results. On the 3rd August the rain 

 fell with the utmost violence all along the Malabar Coast, and another 

 period of unusual and general disturbance now made its appearance just 

 before the final drawing off of the rains — for at Bombay, on the 4th, 

 just as the moon had attained its full, the barometer suddenly rose by 

 a quarter of an inch in thirty-six hours' time — the weather became 

 showery and open : this state of matters extending at least a hundred 

 miles into the interior. On the 3rd a severe storm occurred off the 

 mouths of the Ganges, in which a large vessel belonging to the king of 

 Burmah was lost. The next full moon and the weather all over the 

 country was changed. On the 1 7th of August there seems to have been 

 a general fall of rain all over the country, though much more moderate 

 in amount, than many of those which had previously occurred. 



On the 27th July, violent rain began to fall at Simla, and so con- 

 tinued almost without cessation up to the 7th August. On the 29th, 



