Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/105

 The mirage is also seen in great perfection in the Punjaub, and an arid waste of sand is apparently as if by magic transformed into a beautiful lake, fringed with foliage.

Meteors are very frequent, with a degree of splendour and duration seldom equalled; thunder and lightning are less frequent and less vivid than in other parts of India.

The rains that afford so much relief in the Central Provinces, and are looked forward to as an oasis in the desert, are merely nominal at Lahore, and very little more falls during July, August and September than during the three previous months. Withal the rivers rise high, owing to supplies from the mountains, and if two or three days' rain take place, when it is so swollen by the snow, a large part of the country is inundated, as the following extract from my Note Book of July, 1847, will show:—

"A change is now come o'er the spirit of the dream; the rebellious dust that wont to fly into every body's face is now become a kneaded clod, a plastic mass of clay, fit for the mould of the brick-maker, or the trowel of the sculptor; the windows of heaven have been opened wide, and copious showers of welcome rain have fallen upon the fevered earth and the no less fevered inhabitants. The Ravee is full to overflowing, and has extended its dimensions up to the city walls and