452 



The Valley of Nepaul. 



[Oct. 



wind blows, so calm is the atmosphere, or so irregularly do blasts from 

 the mountains rush down into the subjacent plain. This calmness and 

 irregularity in direction of the winds is most marked during the rains, 

 and early part of the cold season, or from the middle of June to the end 

 of January. From the beginning of February to the commencement of 

 the rains, the wind blows during the day pretty steadily from the west, 

 veering round to the north-west at evening during the months of Fe- 

 bruary, March, and April, and to the south-west at the same time of 

 the day during the month of May and early part of June. From the 

 commencement of the rains until their termination, the wind blows ge- 

 nerally from the south, and south-west ; occasionally from the east, and 

 south-east, and very rarely indeed from the west or north-west. 

 After the cessation of the rains, which is generally simultaneous 

 with that season in Behar, the winds are more various, blowing 

 occasionally from all quarters, but most rarely from the west, 

 and most frequently from the north. A register of the direction 

 of the wind kept at any one part of the valley would but ill suffice 

 to ascertain accurately the course of the wind for the day throughout 

 the valley generally. It is almost always observable at the 

 confines of the valley that the wind blows from the moun- 

 tains at evening, and although I cannot state the fact from observations 

 made at the same hour in different parts of the valley confines, I have, 

 when in these situations, so invariably observed the wind to blow from 

 the nearest mountain, that I believe at evening during the dry and 

 hot season especially, the wind blows from all points of the horizon 

 into the valley at the mountain bases; after which the currents of air 

 are joined with the wind prevailing in the valley proper, with which 

 they are carried along in its direction. The breezes which come rush- 

 ing from the mountain sides after and about sunset, ought not perhaps 

 to be noted in ascertaining the directions of the wind in this valley as 

 they are doubtless no more than currents of denser air, descending to- 

 take the place of more rarified volumes of atmosphere, but as these 

 winds sometimes extend for a mile or two from the mountains, they 

 are apt to mislead, as to the direction of the actually prevailing wind 

 in the valley generally. Spurs from the mountains, which form bays- 

 or subordinate valleys protect these spaces from the influence of the 

 prevailing current of air to the distances above noted. The average 

 annual temperature of the air in the valley approximates that of the 

 climates of the southern European countries : a circumstance which 

 will explain the ready growth of the peach and pomegranate, wild and 

 in the open air. The greater moisture of this climate than of those of 



