There are thus not only the conditions for causing more rain, now on the west, now on the east side of this mountain range, but the conditions also for the most copious precipitation. Accordingly, when we come to consult rain gauges, and to ask meteorological observers in India about the fall of rain, they tell us that on the western slopes of the ghats it sometimes reaches the enormous depth of twelve or fifteen inches in one day.
These S.1V. monsoon winds of India continue their course to the Hitnalaya, dropping moisture along their course, and in crossing this range they are subjected to a lower temperature than that to which they were exposed in crossing the ghats. Here they drop more of their moisture, in the shape of snow and rain, and then pass over into the thirsty lands beyond, with scarcely enough vapour in them to make even a cloud. Thence they ascend into the upper air, there to become counter-currents in the general system of atmo spherical circulation.
The greatest rainfall occurs on the slopes of those mountains which the trade-winds first strike, after having blown across the greatest tract of ocean. The more abrupt the elevation, and the shorter the distance between tbe moun tain top and the ocean, the greater the amount of precipitation.
Sudden storms are common throughout India in the spring. For an hour before sunset, clouds are gathered in the western horizon, which is illuminated with repeated flashes of lightning, accompanied with a continued muttering of distant thunder, the atmosphere becoming oppressively sultry. Suddenly the heavens are furiously agi tated, a brightening space is seen on the horizon, and they appear rapidly diverging from it as from a centre. A few large drops of rain are dashed downwards with great violence, a whirlwind rises almost instantly, and blows as if it blew its last, with a violence to which Europe is a stranger. The rain then falls as if a deluge were commenc ing, sudden and terrific crashes of thunder are heard above and around, and hailstones such as we have read of are often precipitated with most injurious effect. The violence of the storm is generally exhausted in about half an hour.
Hailstorms are dreaded in India, as the hail stones are often very large, and sometimes kill man and beast, as well as destroy much of the crops.
Typhoon is the European name of frightful equinoctial gales which vex sea and land about the tropics, in the eastern seas, and down as far as to 10° from the equator. The whole Eastern Archipelago is excluded from their sphere, while the whole of the Philippines is within it, the island of Mindanao alone excepted. Typhoon is said to be a word of Chinese origin, from Ta, great, and Fang, tempest. It may, however, also be from the Arabic Tufan, a storm, and that from the Arabic root Taof, he did turn. Typhoons, cyclones, and tornadoes are great rotatory winds that move along a curved line in increasing circles, sometimes centripetal. In the northern hemi sphere, the rotatory movement follows a direction contrary to that of the bands of a clock ; while the opposite takes place in the southern hemi sphere. In maritime language, typhoons are dan gerous tempests which occur in the northern part of the China Sea, along the southern and eastern coast of Chitin, »car Formosa, the Ila.shee
Islands, the north end of Luconia; also to the eastward of those islands, aud betwixt Formosa and the Japan Archipelago. These tempests usually blow with the greatest fury near the hind ; as the dista.nce is increased to the southward from the coast of China, their violence generally abates, and they seldom reach beyond lat. 14° N., although a severe gale has been experienced at times two or three degrees farther to the south ward. They occur in both monsoon& A velocity of CO or 70 miles an hour is a toler ably severe gale, and a tropical hurricane rarely exceeds 100 miles an hour. On the 18th of August 1876? however, as the central vortex of storm approached Cape Lookout about half-past six in the morning, the anemometer was found to be registering 138 miles an hour. At this point the instrument gave way, the cups being violently torn from their stems. It is said, however, that an hour and a half after the break-down of the anemometer the wind was estimated to have attained a speed of 165 miles an hour, or some 30 miles an hour in excess of what rendered the Guadaloupe hurricane so famous in the annals of meteorology. This American storm is thought to have been the most violent ever recorded. A velocity of 100 miles an hour means a pressure of nearly half a hundredweight on a square foot.
In one of the most violent tenipests that ever swept over London, a pressure of only 35 lbs. was registered. During a storm in Liverpool in 1863, every now and again the wind registered a velo city of 93 miles an hour, and in February 1868 it was thought to have attained 120 miles an hour, and did enormous mischief on the north-west seaboard.
The desert of Kharazm or Regan, from June to September, is liable to destructive hot winds, in which man and beast perish, even the hardy camel perishing miserably. The Baluchi call it Julot or Julo, the flame, also Ilad-i-Simoom, or the poison wind. There is great heat of skin, quickly ending in death. The approach of the wind is ushered in by an oppressive calm in the air, and a degree of heat that affects the eyes ; the precaution then adopted by travellers is to cover themselves over, and lie prostrate on the earth. A curious fact is established by this cus tom, that any cloth, however thin, will obviate the deleterious effects of the Ilad-i-Shnoom on the human body.
The hot winds on the Oxus at Hissar and in Khiva are called Tibbad. The hot wind of the sandy deserts of Central Asia, laden with fine dust, blows over Khojend and Khokand, where it is called Garm-sal, darkens the atmosphere, and kills the silk-worm. It blows through the jend opening into the Fargliana valley. At Yar kand, in autumn, a fine dust sometimes for seven or eight days fills the atmosphere.
With the Hindus, the air, or \rap, and the winds, or Maruts, are personified and invoked. The maruts are depicted as roaring amongst the forests, compared to youthful warriors bearing lances on their shoulders, delightiug in the Aetna juice like Indra, and, like him, the bestowers. of benefits on their worshippers.-21.faury's Physical Geography; llorsburgh; Vigne ; Markham's Em bassy ; Reid ; Capper ; Piddington.