The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1878-08-19

THE THERMOMETER AT ONE HUNDRED AND
TWENTY DEGREES IN THE SHADE.

From the bombay Ga2ette.l
The hot weather throughout India this
year has been described on all sides as OF
exceptional severity. In Calcutta the heat
has been extraordinary even for that part
of the country, and there have been hume
rous cases of heat-apoplexy reported. In
the northwest provinces the heat has been
almost unprecedented. We: hear OF the
thermometer registering as much as
1900 in the shade, and of deaths taking
place even among the natives in conse-
uuence. Regarding the south OF India we
find that the beat has been no less remarka-
BILE there than it has been in other parts OF
the country. The other day one OF the
Madras newspapers reported that the air
was so hot that cheroot could almost be
lighted By it. In Bombay we have had our
share of hot weather. The monsoon has ut
last broken, but before it did the horrors OF
the situation were wonderful. There are
two kinds Of heat in India, and each
has its admirers. There Is the moist
heat OF the sea-bordering districts, and
the dry heat of the up country. So
journers in the interior say, when they
come down to Bombay, that the heavy.
moisture In the air is more sickening than
even the hot winds Of the Deccan. With
khuS- khus tatties you can reduce the tenn
perature indoors up-countIy, but the moist
ened atmosphere of Bombay will admit OF
no such paIliation. 1t hangs over you
everywhere like a steaming blanket. 60
where you win, do what you will, there Is
no escape from it and its immediate attend
ants-inordinate perspiration, collapsed en-,
ergies, liver complaints, and prlckly neat:
The monsoon, which generally breaks
about the 9th OF June, held of with per-.
sistency which was phenopenal, and the
heat day after day was tremendous. There
were at 3east two nights when sleep was
next to impossible. The air was perfectly
still: Not leaf futtered The faintest
zephyr waited from the sea would have
been godseud, but it came not. The awful
hot stiffness seemed the prelude to some
supernatural catastrophe. It conveyed a
mysterious sense OF waiting for something
worse to come. A grand, crashing, destruc-
tive thunderstorm would not have been
dsgraced by such portentous stiffness. But
the thunderstorm, which would have been
welcome, never burst, and the dense heat
continued. First the wearied victim turned
upon his couch, restlessly trying to WOO
sleep; then be burst into Il profuse perspi-
ration, and after vainIy turning over and
over he had to get up and walk about or
throw himself exhausted into a cain chair,
in the veranda Or the open air, and wait
patiently for daybreak. The hour before
the sun rose was hotter than any other
part OF the weary twenty.tour hours.
The sun might have brought breeze
with him, but he rose red and angry
through hot gray mists, the monarch OF
stiffness and insufferable heat. 1t was not
until carly in the forenoon that breeze
sprung up, and the eagerness with which 1t
was welcomed was the most eloquent testi-
mony to the severity Of the airless period
of Internal torture which had Just been
passed through. 1t was splendid weather
for apoplexy, and gasping thin men who
had steut, short-necked, full-blooded
friends, and knew that they would be
gasping too, entertained many a gloomy
speculation upon the probable effects OF
such dreadful weather. Under such cir
cumstances as these it can readily be lima
gined how welcome the monsoon has been
in Bombay this year. 1t simply came up
with a short-ived gale about midnight one
night last week, and after spluttering about
mildly for several days.. giving no good,
regular downpour, it burst forth on Friday
afternoon with hurricane, and rained Tor
twelve hours at a stretch. On Saturday 1t
was distinguished by one or two violent
gusts that did considerable amount OF
damage. Windows were torn OFT, buggles
were all but blowa over, and the waves in
the harbor were tossed to an extraordinary
height.