434 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 







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5 c 





Main Street runs from the 

 aridity of less than ten inches of 

 rain annually, near the Afghan 

 border, to the region of 75 

 inches, beside the lower Ganges ; 

 and were it to be continued far- 

 ther, it would soak in the rains 

 of Chittagong or Cherrapunji, 

 where Jupiter Pluvius is always 

 wringing out his heavy clouds 

 like new washed towels and 

 where in July, 1861, rain fell at 

 the rate of one foot a day. Cher- 

 rapunji is accustomed to this 

 form of hydraulic mining, which 

 is wearing down the Garo and 

 Khasi Hills, but with 75 feet of 

 rain in twelve months, 1861 was 

 known, even among those to 

 whom rain is no novelty, as the 

 year of the big rain. 



While our Centennial was be- 

 ing celebrated in Philadelphia, 

 the southwest monsoon, hitting 

 the spring-board of the Khasi 

 cliffs, leaped into the cold upper 

 air and came down clotted to the 

 extent of 41 inches in a single 

 day. No other region on earth 

 has attempted to break that 

 record. 



Throughout the entire plain 

 which flanks the great Indian 

 highway the mean annual tem- 

 perature is between 75 and 78 

 degrees. In May the mean iso- 

 therm of all India runs so di- 

 rectly over the Grand Trunk 

 Road that one would think that 

 by stepping into the fields on 

 either side he would run off its 

 88.7 degrees to 88.8 on the right 

 toward the hot heart of the con- 

 tinental land-mass and 88.6 on 

 the left as he turned aside to- 

 ward the hill stations and brew- 

 eries which line the lower slopes 

 of the Himalayas from Murree 

 to Darjeeling. 



The density of population, 

 like the rainfall, is lighter at the 

 northwestern end; but from 

 Rawalpindi to Calcutta one 

 would have to go a considerable 

 distance either side of the road 

 to find a population less dense 



