1 44 CLIMATE AND PRODUCTIONS
2 fall and continue for some weeks, the northern
3 part of the country being much more plentifully
4 visited by them than the southern. Early in the
5 mornings of the winter season, and during the
6 night, the cold is severe, the thermometer, even
7 in the plains, falling in the north as low as 30^,
8 while in the more elevated regions, which sepa-
9 rate the Punjaub plains from Affghanistan, it is
10 often down in the month of December to 2° below
11 freezing point. In Kashmir, however, a much
12 greater degree of cold prevails. Snow falls in
13 December, preceded by night frosts and foggy
14 days (or what resembles fog) in November. The
15 cold is then several degrees below freezing point,
16 and the country is bare of vegetation. A sort
17 of spring commences in April, accompanied by
18 heavy rains, which continue until the beginning
19 of June, when summer sets in with a thermometer
20 range of IbP to 85°, and gradually verges into an
21 autumn about the beginning of September. A
22 milder temperature than the extreme summer
23 heat can however always be obtained by an ascent
24 of the mountains which encircle the valley.
25 The diseases common to British India afflict
26 humanity in the plains of the Punjaub in a similar
27 degree. Febrile complaints, diseases of the liver,
28 agues, dysentery, and jaundice are common,
29 especially at the close of the rainy monsoon ; and
30 cholera sometimes visits the populace, but is not '