day or a week, and the extremes of heat and cold are greater in the course of a year.

In nothing does India differ more from Europe and America than in the seasons. The year is not divided there into seasons of spring, summer, autumn, and winter, and these words are seldom if ever used in reference to that country. Instead of the seasons current in the temperate climates, the common division of the year in India is into the rainy and fair seasons. In the central and northern provinces they sometimes speak of the rainy season, the cool season, and the hot season, or months. And in some provinces on the eastern side of the peninsula, they sometimes speak of the year as divided into the south-west monsoon and the north-east monsoon.

The rainy season, generally called the monsoon, is commonly reckoned to include four months, namely, June, July, August, and September. It comes from the south-west, and the clouds pour down the accumulated stores they have been gathering for some months over the Indian Ocean. The approach is indicated in the latter part of May by the atmosphere becoming hazy and moist, by large banks of watery-looking clouds in the afternoon, and by white fleecy clouds resting on the hills and mountains for some hours in the morning. These phenomena are so sure indications of its approach that people accustomed to observe them, are seldom overtaken by surprise. In some provinces, especially in the mountain districts and on the tablelands, there is much heavy thunder and vivid lightning at the commencement and again at the close of the rainy season. The monsoon commences at Cape Comorin and proceeds northward extending over all parts of India, except a tract on the Coromandel Coast. The greatest quantity falls in the low provinces near the sea and in mountainous districts. On the western coast of the peninsula the quantity varies from 70 to 100 inches. On the eastern coast the quantity is generally less. So also in the Deckan and in the great valley of the Ganges. On the Ghat mountains the quantity of rain that falls in the four months of the monsoon often exceeds 200 inches, and sometimes amounts to 300 inches. The tops of some of these high mountains are enveloped in thick fog and clouds, and have

almost incessant rain for several months. The cascades formed by the floods of rain at this season are often sublime and beautiful.

The Coromandel Coast is so much sheltered by the mountains and high table-land of Mysore on the south-west that but little rain falls in the months, which in other parts of India are called the rainy reason. The provinces on this coast have their rain chiefly in the months of October and November, and it comes from the Bay of Bengal. Hence the inhabitants there speak of the south-west monsoon and of the north-east monsoon. In Bengal the rains come generally from the south, and the same clouds pass over the great valley of the Ganges, gradually turning to the north-west in the direction of the chain of the Himalaya mountains till they reach Cashmere and the Punjab, where the rains become comparatively light.

The rainy months are the natural season of production over all India. The earth, having become dry and hot, often to the depth of several feet, absorbs the first heavy rains. But the ground soon becomes saturated, and the warm state of the earth and of the atmosphere day and night adds force and vigor to the ordinary productive powers of nature. Vegetation springs up with a degree of rapidity and grows with a luxuriousness quite unknown in temperate climates. The change in the whole face of nature is great and surprising. In a few weeks all the tanks and ponds are full. Streams flow in channels where there had been no water for months, and rivers which had become almost dry, fill their channels, and bursting their banks occasion great damage. The rains close gradually, continuing longer in some provinces than in others. September is included in the rainy season, though generally on the sea-shore and in the large and low plains but little rain falls in this month. In the mountainous districts and on high table-land the rains often continue into October, and then close with heavy showers and much thunder and lightning.

From the close of the rainy season till June, the weather over the greater part of the country is fair. There is seldom a shower of rain or a cloudy day. The atmosphere, especially in the mornings, is often smoky and foggy. The ground is dry and parched, and the wind often raises clouds of dust. Vege

tation except now and then in spots cultivated by irrigation, becomes dry and apparently dead. Cattle, horses, etc., graze wherever they can find any thing to eat, but they become lean and require fodder, which is provided for them in the rainy season, as provision is made in America in summer to supply the wants of winter. Trees, whether scattered or in forests, generally retain their leaves, but they have not the verdure and freshness of the rainy season. They must root deep in the ground and require little moisture, or they would dry up and perish during such a drought and heat of seven or eight months' duration. Those districts which have no forests and few trees, appear barren, dreary, and desolate. Water fit to drink often becomes very scarce, the springs, wells, and streams drying up. In the months of March, April, and May, the mirage* often appears in great beauty for some hours in the middle of the day. In some districts hot winds blow for some hours in the middle of the day, and they are very withering and enervating. The change from the hot months to the rainy season is earnestly desired by all classes, Europeans and natives. The temperature then at once becomes cooler and humid, and the sky is overcast with clouds most of the time for several months.

DISEASES.

Cholera is believed to have originated in India and for many years its ravages were confined to that country, but it has now become known by sorrowful experience in nearly all parts of the

* The following is an extract from the writer's journal when on a tour in the Deckan in 1836. "To day at several places on the road the atmospherical phenomenon called mirage, appeared in great variety and beauty. Sometimes it appeared like a broad river, flowing with a rapid current and agitated by the wind. In another place it exhibited the appearance of a lake, several miles in extent, studded with islands and ruffled with waves. This phenomenon is not uncommon in the Deckan, in the dry season. I have several times seen it before, but never in such variety and beauty as I saw it to-day. The name in the native language is mrugzul, literally deer-water, and the people say it is so called because the deer, deceived in believing places exhibiting these phenomena to be streams and ponds of water, are often seen running to them, and then from one place to another, pursuing the floating vapor in the delusive hope of quenching their thirst."

world. It is generally committing its ravages in some parts of
the country, and its appearance in any place does not excite
much attention or anxiety, till cases of it have become fre-
quent, and many of them have proved fatal. Great consterna-
tion then seizes all classes, and as many as can find means,
escape for their lives, so that villages and even districts are for a
while almost deserted. This disease has been a great scourge
to India, and little progress has been made in ascertaining the
causes, or discovering any remedy for it. Fevers, dysentery,
hepatic affections, rheumatism, ophthalmia, and leprosy are fre-
quent diseases. Of the last mentioned there are two or three
different kinds. One of these, called sometimes the black
leprosy, I have no doubt is the disease described by Moses in
the laws given to the Jews.* It is a dreadful disease, hereditary,
contagious, and incurable. I do not wonder at the strictness
of the laws of Moses concerning it. When an attack of
disease becomes a clearly developed case of this kind of leprosy,
the unhappy subject is separated from his family and all society,
almost as much as such an one would have been of old among
the Jews. Such persons often live for several years, and it is
not easy to conceive of human beings more diseased, distressed,
helpless, and hideous than they become. There is another kind
of leprosy which appears to be the same as is mentioned in
several places in the Scriptures. This disease makes its first
appearance in a small white spot or spots on some part of the
body, which increase till the skin over the greater part and
sometimes over the whole body becomes changed into a dull,
dirty white color, the person thus exhibiting a very singular
appearance.
This disease does not occasion much suffering,
and sometimes does not appear to affect the general health. It
is said to be incurable and is considered a great affliction,
though it does not, like the black leprosy, debar the sufferer from
all domestic and social intercourse. A disease called elephan-
tiasis, very frequent in some districts, has been regarded by
many, though perhaps not properly, as a kind of leprosy. It has
the appearance of leprosy and dropsy combined. The disease
is chiefly confined to the lower limbs, which become much

* See 13th and 14th chapters of Leviticus.
† See Ex. 4: 6. Num. 12: 10. 2 Kings 5:27.

swollen, heavy, and unwieldy, of very unsightly appearance, and are often in an inflamed and painful state. This disease is said to be incurable, but I am not aware that it occasions death.

The climate of India generally is not healthy for Europeans; indeed, to such persons some parts of the country are particularly unhealthy. But this is not the general character of the climate in respect to the native population. If the inhabitants of India could be as well supplied with wholesome food, have as comfortable clothing and houses, and when ill, could have as good medical attendance and care as the inhabitants of America and Europe have, perhaps they would generally have as good health, though probably the average duration of human life would still be some years less. In all classes both sexes arrive at puberty 2 or 3 years earlier than in Europe and America, and they appear to be as far advanced in life in their physical and mental faculties at 40 or 45 years of age, as the people of Europe and America do at 50 or 55; consequently the average duration of life among them must be considerably less.

MOUNTAINS, RIVERS, ETC.

Cape Comorin, the southern point of India, is the termination of the great mountain range commonly called in European geography the Ghats, but by the native population the Syadree mountains. They extend from Cape Comorin in a north-west direction nearly parallel with the coast at a distance varying from 30 to 50 miles to latitude 21° or nearly 1,000 miles. Their height varies from 2,000 to 4,000 feet; and in a few places it approaches 5,000 feet. These mountains rise abruptly on the west side from nearly the level of the sea, but on the east side the descent is small. They are generally covered with forests and their appearance adds much to the sublime and beautiful scenery visible from ships proceeding along the western coast. The Neilgherry Hills are east of the Ghats, between latitude 10° and 11°. They separate the table-land of Mysore from Travancore, and cover a considerable area. Some of these mountains rise to the height of 7,000 and 8,000 feet, and furnish scenery of great sublimity and beauty. Here are several important sanatory stations, which are much resorted to by Europeans.