285 
• Rainfall Provinces. 
Area 
Square Miles. 
Number 
of 
Stations. 
Mean 
Rainfall, 
1878. 
1. 
Punjaub Plains 
118,000 
29 
Inches. 
21-66 
2. 
N.W. Provinces and Oudh. . . 
82,000 
67,000 
42 
37-35 
3. 
Rajputana 
18 
24-36 
4. 
Central India States 
89,000 
21 
42-00 
5. 
Beliar 
30,000 
8 
42-31 
6. 
Western Bengal 
38,000 
6 
51-24 
7. 
Lower Bengal 
54,000 
21 
67-52 
8. 
Assam and Cacbar 
52,000 
13 
9818 
9. 
Orissa and Northern Circars. 
27,000 
M3 
45-92 
10. 
South Central Provinces 
61,000 
14 
49*22 
11. 
Berar and Kandesh 
43,000 
11 
30'08 
12. 
Guzerat 
54,500 
9 
35-98 
13. 
Sind and Cutch 
66,500 
. 10 
9-24 
14. 
North Dakhan 
48,000 
14 
28-68 
15. 
Konkhan and Ghauts 
16,000 
10 
118-77 
16. 
Malabar and Ghauts 
18,000 
8 
113-95 
17. 
Mysore and South Hyderabad 
84,000 
10 
27*01 
18. 
Carnatic 
72,000 
29 
33'34 
19. 
Arakan 
11,000 
4 
171-05 
20. 
Pegu 
32,500 
6 
74-91 
21. 
Tenasserim 
10,500 
4 
170-73 
Total 
1,074,000 
Certain areas are yet imperfectly represented by rain- 
gauge stations, such are the Thur desert (about 65,000 square 
miles) in Northern Hyderabad, Jaipur, Singbhoom, and South 
Rewah, which, taken together, form about one- sixth of the 
whole. Omitting these from consideration, it appears that, 
on a rough approximation, there was, in 1878, a rainfall 
equal to 4*9 inches in excess of the average, over the whole 
of India and its dependencies, omitting seas and islands. 
This shows that, although the general character of the 
seasons is pretty constant, yet that there are annual fluc- 
tuations which perhaps recur in cycles and are more remark- 
able in some districts than in others ; years of deficiency being 
conducive to imperfect irrigation of the land, which results in 
scarcity, — sometimes in famine. 
In our own favoured land, where, with all its uncertainties 
of a variable climate, we have happily little or no experience of 
the desolation caused by a deficiency of rain, we can hardly 
understand what is implied by a failure of the rains in India. 
A charming and talented writer* in India has recently drawn 
* P. Robinson, 
5 2 
