180 On Rain Gunges and Registry of River Freshes. [No. 80. 



loose, inaccurate accounts! on which the farmers of such re- 

 ports are now forced to rely, they might procure true records 

 of the seasons, compare them one with another, and judge 

 tvith confidence the results of administrative measures. With- 

 out such records, it may often occur that the good and evil 

 which ought to be attributed to management are laid to the 

 charge of the heavens, the faults of bad assessment and col- 

 lection washed out by the inundations of a river, oppressive 

 measures paired off with dry seasons, or the merits of a pro- 

 mising new work of irrigation evaporated by the cloudless 

 rays ofj a July sun or the hot breath of a September land 

 wind. 



How little do we now know about the famines which but a 

 few years ago were productive of so much distress in the 

 Northern Circars and elsewhere in this Presidency ! ! We 

 know that multitudes of men and cattle perished from starva- 

 tion and thirst ; that where in 1830 there were happy people 

 and thriving villages, there are now bare ruined walls, jungle 

 and solitude ; that the revenues of this Presidency then re- 

 ceived a shock from which several years of good seasons and 

 peaceful Government have not sufficed to recover them : — • 

 and this is pretty nearly all that we do know. Is it not pos- 

 sible, or even probable that by more careful observations 



measures might be inscribed, on another the distances from neighbouring towns 

 &c. &c. £ 100 laid out in rendering familiar to the people English notions of 

 time and measurement would not be a misappropriation of the funds allotted 

 for educational purposes. 



f The natives in this part of India reckon the qauntity of fallen rain in 

 what they call "paddum" which signifies the number of finger's breadths 

 to which the water is supposed to have penetrated the earth. They do not 

 take into consideration whether the soil be sandy or clayey, absorbent or 

 retentive of moisture . Tanks are reported to be half full or quarter full 

 but though accumulations of mud in the bed may have filled up a third or 

 more of the space which formerly contained water, the same time honoured 

 mark continues to point out the quarter or half tank. 



X See in the Madras Almanacs what weather ought to prevail in July 

 and September. 



