spring heavy dews fall, and strong winds set in from the west.
These gradually become heated by the increasing radiation of the
earth, as the sun becomes more vertical and the days longer.

Towards the end of May the monsoon blows up from the Indian Ocean
and from the Bay of Bengal, when a rainfall averaging about
twenty inches takes place and lasts during the ensuing quarter.
This usually ceases about the end of September, when the weather
is at its most sickly point. Constant exhalations of malaria take
place till the return of the cold weather.

After the winter, cacurbitaceous crops are grown, followed by
sowings of rice, sugar, and cotton. About the beginning of the
rainy season the millets and other coarse grains are put in, and
the harvesting takes place in October. The winter crops are
reaped in March and April. Thus the agriculturists are never out
of employ, unless it be during the extreme heats of May and June,
when the soil becomes almost as hard from heat as the earth in
England becomes in the opposite extreme of frost.

Of the hot season Mr. Elphinstone gives the following strong but
just description: — "The sun is scorching, even the wind is hot,
the land is brown and parched, the dust flies in whirlwinds, all
brooks become dry, small rivers scarcely keep up a stream, and
the largest are reduced to comparative narrow channels in the
midst of vast sandy beds." It should, however, be added, that
towards the end of this terrible season some relief is afforded
to the river supply by the melting of the snow upon the higher
Himalayas, which sends down some water into the almost exhausted
stream-beds. But even so, the occasional prolongation of the dry