Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/100

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80
ADVICE TO OFFICERS

their action upon a wet tatty, keeps the house comparatively cool.

4. THE PUNJAUB.—The climate of Lahore is very different from that of the Central Provinces along the Ganges, and is quite uninfluenced by the monsoon. The prevailing wind during the hot season is from the east, its cooling properties on a tatty are very feeble, and the delicious coolness and comfort derived from tatties in Upper India are little known at Lahore.

An occasional shower, perhaps once in eight, ten, or fifteen days, falls during April, May and June, and though it cools the atmosphere for a couple of days, yet the dampness it engenders prevents the action of the tatty. The heat is consequently very great, and the thermometer ranges from 85° to 95°, or even 100°, in the best houses, rendering punkahs, both night and day, indispensable. The hot weather, really distressing hot weather, however, does not commonly commence till 15th April.

The dust is something incredible. People in England, or even in the Upper Provinces, will not believe, that for days and weeks together the azure vault of heaven, with not a cloud upon it, is as completely eclipsed by impalpable dust as during the densest London fog; and when the wind is high, an elephant might pass by unseen