It will be noticed that the first three months of the year are practically rainless. April is almost as dry. In May, showers herald in the south-west monsoon, which begins in the middle of June and brings nearly two-thirds of the total yearly fall. It is naturally heavier in the Bhadráchalam taluk beyond the Gháts than in the rest of the district. Conversely, the north-east monsoon is hardly felt in that taluk. The latter current is much weaker in this district than in many other parts of the east coast. The rain it brings generally consists of a very heavy downpour on its first arrival, and after the 15th November rain worth mentioning rarely appears. The delta benefits more from this north-east monsoon than the uplands; whereas the latter get more rain in the hot weather than the former. The annual average fall for the whole district (40.26 inches) is moderately high for this Presidency. In only eight other districts is the amount greater. Vizagapatam on the north gets rather more rain, and Ganjám a good deal more; but Kistna on the south receives much less.
The highest fall on record is that at Chódavaram in 1893, which amounted to 86'02 inches. Twenty-two inches fell in September, over twelve in June, August and October, and over nine more in July and November. In the same year 85'85 inches of rain were registered at Amalápuram. The lowest fall recorded for any station is 13'40 inches at Tuni in 1876. No rain was received from January to April or from October to December, inclusive, in that year.
The major part of the district is, humanly speaking, safe from anything in the nature of a famine. The Gódávari draws its water from vast and distant tracts and is not affected by any local failure of rain; and from the time that the anicut first made this river's supplies regularly available for cultivation, the delta has never felt the want of water. In the upland and hill tracts, however, the crops are precarious, and in the Agency the danger is aggravated by the improvidence of the inhabitants. The people there, on the other hand, are accustomed to eking out a livelihood in bad seasons on toddy, gruel made from the pulp of tamarind, jack and mango seeds, and jungle roots. The delta produces vast quantities more food than is required for the subsistence of its own inhabitants, and also provides a constant field for labour; so that no one in the uplands need ever starve for want of work if he will make up his mind to travel so far.
Before the construction of the anicut, however, the whole district suffered cruelly on several occasions from terrible famines due to drought. It was the recollection and the
