Health resorts for tropical invalids in India, at home, and abroad / by W.J. Moore.

Date:
1881
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Health resorts for tropical invalids in India, at home, and abroad / by W.J. Moore. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    are situated at varying elevations on the hills, sloping more or less precipitously to the lake, the intervening spaces and adjoining heights being clothed with forest trees. The height of the lake above the sea is G,400 feet, but, as before intimated, the surrounding hills are much higher, rising from 7,000 to 8,500 feet. Govern- ment House stands at a height of 7,000 feet, and most of the houses are between this altitude and that of the lake. The rainfall is very variable, sometimes as much as 140 inches falling, but the average is 70. It is stated that 219 days in the year are fair, 68 cloudy, and 76 wet from either rain or snow. During seven years some rain fell every month except November, August being usually the wettest period. The geological cha- racteristics of the locality are clay, slate, limestone, and shale, with a light friable surface soil. The condi- tions, therefore, are just those favourable to landslips* One happened some years ago at Sukka Tal, a favourite picnic place. On September 22, 1880, an awful catastrophe of the kind occurred. After 25 inches of rain in forty hours a landslip buried the outbuildings of the Victoria Hotel, in which were about twenty natives and one European child. Assistance was im- mediately given, and although the rain continued to fall heavily both soldiers and civilians engaged heartily in the rescue of the sufferers. But, in the words of the telegraphic despatch, ‘ At one o’clock all seemed well; the working party were busy at their task at the bottom of the precipitous ascent which overhung the hotel; the dead were being carried off and the wounded cared for. About half-past one Naini Tal was startled by a sudden and sullen roar louder than the simul- taneous crash of heavy guns, followed by prolonged