434 
Famines in India . 
[October, 
them, or for counteracting, to a greater or lesser degree, 
their effects. Whatever may be the primary cause, or 
causes, of the meteorological disturbances which interfere 
with f he usual amount of rain falling in any year, it seems 
very questionable whether human ingenuity will be able to 
devise means for regulating atmospheric phenomena ; never- 
theless it is certain that the advancement of civilisation, 
with its attendant circumstances, does, in some way or 
another, not only render a land less liable to the scourge of 
famine, but it also provides the means for mitigating its 
effects on the occurrence of a visitation of this nature. The 
events of recent years lead, however, to the painful conclu- 
sion that — so far as India is concerned — practical civili- 
sation has gone a very little way, when we find that hardly 
more than a first step has yet been taken in the successful 
application of our knowledge and material resources to 
warding off calamities such as these. In India the amount 
of annual rainfall varies considerably in different localities ; 
for whilst Sind and parts of Rajputana and the Punjab are 
comprised within an arid zone, and have an average rainfall 
of less than io inches, the central table land of the Penin- 
sula, known as the Deccan, and the greater part of Mysore, 
have a fall of less than 30 inches, in the extreme east the 
amount of rain reaches from 80 to upwards of 100 inches. 
The absolute insufficiency of the rainfall, within the arid 
zone, to support cultivation, has led the inhabitants of those 
parts,, from the very earliest date, to make up for the defi- 
ciency by turning the waters of the Indus and its feeder 
rivers over the land during the season of agriculture. These 
parts may therefore be fairly said to be placed beyond 
serious risk of famine through drought, the rivers whence 
their means of irrigation are obtained being fed by the per- 
petual snows of the Himalayas ; and even though their 
waters may occasionally partially fail, it appears that, when 
this is the case, the inconvenience caused is very limited 
and local, and of no serious moment. In Southern India 
the enormous numbers of tanks, which owe their existence 
to former dynasties, testify to the necessity that has, for 
ages past, existed for the careful husbanding of water for 
the purposes of irrigation. 
The precautions taken in those parts where the rainfall is 
but limited, to provide water for the soil, being, as they 
were, unquestionably undertaken to provide against loss of 
crops, and therefore against famine, it is not unreasonable 
to suppose that the necessity of these works of artificial 
irrigation was impressed upon the rulers, by whom they 
