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INDIA

rather more protected by its surrounding wall of mountains,
 experiences a good deal of this extraordinary
thermometric variation, and it is to this in great part that
we must attribute those periodic outbreaks of fever which
occasionally place the garrison hors de combat at the
changing seasons of the year.
The cold of the Afghan and Baluch highlands, which
is very severe in winter, is much accentuated by the
periodic blasts of north-westerly wind which are particularly
 noticeable on the western borders of those
countries. These wind currents may be traced through
Western Afghanistan, Turkestan, and Persia to the Caucasus
and the Caspian deserts. They reach the frontiers of
India in Sind and the Punjab in full blast, bringing with
them a peculiar haze caused by minute particles of dust
held in atmospheric suspension, and enveloping the landscape
 in a mist which lasts for days. In the Turkestan
deserts these icy blasts (more icy there than on the
Indian border) are locally known as ¢ Shamshir ” (or the
scimitar) from their cutting intensity. In the Persian
Gulf they are called “Shumal” or ¢ northerly” gales; but
wherever they are met their character is the same. They
are not healthy, rain-bearing currents from the sea, but
dry, icy blasts generated in high altitudes (possibly in the
Russian steppes), and they sweep across the high plateaux
of Western Asia unchecked by any formidable ranges
and unmodified by the influence of forests or cultivation.
Chey have a distinct influence on the climate of the Indian
borderland, but gradually become lost in the low altitudes
of the plains.
But if Baluchistan can produce an exceptional record
of cold in winter, it is no less remarkable for the heat of
certain of its low-lying tracts in summer. The actual
-egistered record of high temperature belongs to Jacobabad
n Sind, where the thermometer for days together occasionally
 descends no lower than 108° F. in the shade.
But there are certain well-known points on the Sind
border near the line of railway connecting Jacobabad
with Quetta. in which the temperature becomes even more