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rainless, or with a rainfall as low as two inches ; whilst the. 
highest fall is at Cherra Poonjee, in the Khasia hills, on the 
north-east frontier, where 600 inches fall in the year. Next 
to this, the Western Ghauts have the greatest rainfall; at 
Mahabuleshwar 253 to 300 inches, and on the Tenasserim 
coast 180 inches fall yearly. The provinces in the North-east 
receive rain in rather a different manner ; the wind which 
brings the rains to that part of the continent blows from 
the south-west, over the Bay of Bengal, till, meeting the 
mountains, it is deflected. The prevailing wind, therefore, 
in this region is south-easterly, and from this quarter Bengal 
and the Gangetic valley receive their rain ; when it reaches 
the mountains in the north-west, it is compelled to part with 
more of its moisture. 
Near the sea, w r here the land is low and the temperature 
high, very little rain falls; at Kurrachee it was, in 1879, 
1*92 inch. In inland districts, as at Peshawur, in 1879, only 
5*84 inches fell ; whilst the rainfall in Calcutta averages 63 ; 
in Madras, 48*50 ; in Bombay, 74 ; in Delhi, 27*5 ; in Meerut, 
27; in Lahore, 21; in Mooltan, 7; in Benares, 37; in 
Bellary, 18; in Bangalore, 35; in Poonali, 27; in Belgaum, 
49; in Kamptee, 22 ; in Akyab, 198. The amount of humidity 
in the air also varies greatly. Flat hot plains, like Scinde, 
where there is little or no rain, have an atmosphere almost 
saturated, and on some of the lower mountain ranges, in 
Bengal, and in many districts near the coast in Southern 
India, the air is very damp. But the elevated table-lands of 
the Deccan and Central India, and the hot sandy plains of 
North-west India, have a dry air during the months of May 
and June, which blows like a furnace blast, heated and 
desiccated by the burning country over which it has passed! 
The north-east monsoon commences gradually in October, 
and is attended with dry weather throughout the Peninsula 
generally, except on the Coromandel coast, where it brings 
rain from the Bay of Bengal, between October and December, 
after which it is dry until March, when it gives place to 
variable winds, which last till about June, when the heat is 
great and the tendency is then from the south. About the 
end of May the south-west monsoon again sets in, bringing 
a few showers, known as the lesser rains, before the regular 
rains set in. In the hill stations of Darjeeling, Mussoorie, 
Nainee-tal, Murree, Simla, and generally in the elevated 
provinces of the lower ranges of the Himalayas, also at 
Ootacamund, Conoor, Wellington, Mahabuleshwar, in the 
Neilghernes, and Ghauts — stations at elevations of 5,000 to 
/,000 feet — the climate is genial, the rainfall moderate, it 
