1837.] 



The Valley of Nepaul 



45/ 



in with the month of May ; storms from the N. W. with wester- 

 ly breezes continue, and occasional showers give a refreshing coolness 

 to the air, now sometimes heated to 80 degrees. The cultivator is em- 

 ployed in sowing rice, and reaping wheat, this short season combining 

 the climate and labours of an English summer and autumn with the 

 cultivators operations during October and November, in the plains 

 of India. The rains are ushered in as in Bengal by thunder 

 and lightning, and usually commence at the same time as in 

 Tirhoot and Sarun. With the first fall the transplanting of the 

 great rice crop begins, and with their cessation the harvest of the 

 spring sown, or upland rice. The rain falls frequently in torrents 

 as in tropical countries, but often quietly and for days together, 

 the sky being generally cloudy : vegetation of all kinds is now in its 

 utmost vigour, the crops grow with an astonishing rapidity, and the 

 grass requires incessant cropping or eating by cattle to keep it down. 

 Early in September there is a considerable diminution of the tempera- 

 ture of the air ; thunder and lightning again commence. The rain 

 falls more suddenly, and at longer intervals ; the sky becomes clearer, 

 and less cloudy, and by the 15th of the month, a new season has fairly 

 set in. This season (the autumn), is marked by the pleasant and con- 

 genial mildness of the temperature to the feelings. A bright day is pre- 

 ceded by morning fogs and succeeded by skies as clear, and mellow as 

 those of Italy. The face of the country is now a variegated map of 

 green and golden yellow, with every intermediate and bright tint from 

 growing, ripening and ripe crops ; with the month of September the 

 upland rice harvest commences, nor does the harvest throughout the 

 valley meet with interruption until the end of November. 



The seasons as above slightly sketched are five. The winter com- 

 mencing 15th November ; the spring commencing 1st March; the 

 summer, 1st May ; the rainy season, 15th June, and the autumn, 15th 

 September. The winter lasts 31 months ; the spring, 2 ; the summer, 

 li ; the rains, 3, and the autumn 2 months. 



Concluding Remarks. — It occurs to me on coming so near the termi- 

 nation of these notes, that three subjects of much interest have been 

 overlooked, and that however small the amount of information in my 

 memoranda concerning them, it may still be worth transcribing. The 

 first of these, viz. the diseases, or destructive agencies to which crops 

 are subject here, will not occupy many lines. 



The cultivators are familiar with what I have frequently observed 

 toerej and with what our English wheat crops are often ipj tired by. The 



