DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20140#0323
geoup vi: western india, bajvaba, gujbat, each, sindh. 299
quantity of dew did not direct attention to the breezes. Dew is here, for a great part of
the year, the substitute for rain. In Karrachi the cool season does not begin much
before December: in March, with the westerly direction of the wind the temperature
rapidly rises. Cloudless nights and heavy dews are frequent, but also dust-storms
and storms with rain occur: the amount of precipitation is very small. At some
distance from the sea the cool season may be expected to begin about a month
earlier. At Karrachi 45° Fahr. was observed, Jan. 22, 1851; at Bhuj General Jacob once
had 42° as the minimum. (At Multan, in the Panjab, my brother Robebt had, in Jan. 1857,
several times 39°; 33° is the absolute minimum I got communicated by General Jacob.)
From March to May the heat increases considerably; it becomes excessive
for the lower parts; occasional thunder-storms, dust-storms, and particularly, even
during calm days, a suffocating quantity of the suspended solid matter brought over
from the desert by the north-east winds is characteristic for this part of the year.
Northerly winds prevail till the setting-in of the monsun. This takes place for
Karrachi and Kach in the beginning of May, at Naushera and Sakker about middle
of May. Observations of temperatures exceeding 100°, even in well-protected localities,
are not at all unfrequent. In tents 108° to 110° may be observed.
The temperature in the hot season is high and a residence in the cantonment
of Bhuj during the months of April and May, says Dr. Bubnes, is rendered almost
intolerable by hurricanes, which envelop the houses in dust and sand, which are even
driven into the houses through the joints of the windows. The hot wind in May is
sometimes so scorching that its blasts are often not unlike the hot air rising up
from low burning jungle: 106 degrees have been observed even on the sea-shore, at
Mandvi. But we must not forget that, nevertheless, the means of the respective months
are still considerably lower than in the hottest parts of the Panjab: 107°, such as
at Disa in Gujrat, June 9th, 1853, is about the maximum outside the Rajvara desert.
The nights during this period are equally suffocating.
Dust-storms1 have been observed also in the Arabian sea; a very violent dust-
faH with storm was communicated to me by Capt. MacDonald, of the E. L C. navy,
with whom I went over from Aden to Bombay.
1 Recently, Febr. 20th and 21st, 1864, even at Rome a dust fell which had been carried over from Africa in a
very appreciable quantity. Secciii, "Les Mondes," March 1864.
38*
quantity of dew did not direct attention to the breezes. Dew is here, for a great part of
the year, the substitute for rain. In Karrachi the cool season does not begin much
before December: in March, with the westerly direction of the wind the temperature
rapidly rises. Cloudless nights and heavy dews are frequent, but also dust-storms
and storms with rain occur: the amount of precipitation is very small. At some
distance from the sea the cool season may be expected to begin about a month
earlier. At Karrachi 45° Fahr. was observed, Jan. 22, 1851; at Bhuj General Jacob once
had 42° as the minimum. (At Multan, in the Panjab, my brother Robebt had, in Jan. 1857,
several times 39°; 33° is the absolute minimum I got communicated by General Jacob.)
From March to May the heat increases considerably; it becomes excessive
for the lower parts; occasional thunder-storms, dust-storms, and particularly, even
during calm days, a suffocating quantity of the suspended solid matter brought over
from the desert by the north-east winds is characteristic for this part of the year.
Northerly winds prevail till the setting-in of the monsun. This takes place for
Karrachi and Kach in the beginning of May, at Naushera and Sakker about middle
of May. Observations of temperatures exceeding 100°, even in well-protected localities,
are not at all unfrequent. In tents 108° to 110° may be observed.
The temperature in the hot season is high and a residence in the cantonment
of Bhuj during the months of April and May, says Dr. Bubnes, is rendered almost
intolerable by hurricanes, which envelop the houses in dust and sand, which are even
driven into the houses through the joints of the windows. The hot wind in May is
sometimes so scorching that its blasts are often not unlike the hot air rising up
from low burning jungle: 106 degrees have been observed even on the sea-shore, at
Mandvi. But we must not forget that, nevertheless, the means of the respective months
are still considerably lower than in the hottest parts of the Panjab: 107°, such as
at Disa in Gujrat, June 9th, 1853, is about the maximum outside the Rajvara desert.
The nights during this period are equally suffocating.
Dust-storms1 have been observed also in the Arabian sea; a very violent dust-
faH with storm was communicated to me by Capt. MacDonald, of the E. L C. navy,
with whom I went over from Aden to Bombay.
1 Recently, Febr. 20th and 21st, 1864, even at Rome a dust fell which had been carried over from Africa in a
very appreciable quantity. Secciii, "Les Mondes," March 1864.
38*