_Climate._--Great varieties of climate are met with in the presidency. In its extreme dryness and heat, combined with the aridity of a sandy soil, Upper Sind resembles the sultry deserts of Africa. The mean maximum temperature at Hyderabad, in Lower Sind, during the six hottest months of the year, is 98 deg. F. in the shade, and the water of the Indus reaches blood heat; in Upper Sind it is even hotter, and the thermometer has been known to register 130 deg. in the shade. In Cutch and in Gujarat the heat, though less, is still very great. The Konkan is hot and moist, the fall of rain during the monsoon sometimes approaching 300 in. The table-land of the Deccan above the Ghats, on the contrary, has an agreeable climate except in the hot months, as has also the southern Mahratta country; and in the hills of Mahabaleshwar, Singarh, and other detached heights, Europeans may go out at all hours with impunity. Bombay Island itself, though in general cooled by the sea breeze, is oppressively hot during May and October. The south-west monsoon generally sets in about the first week in June, and pours down volumes of rain along the coast. From June to October travelling is difficult and unpleasant, except in Sind, where the monsoon rains exert little influence. _Forests._--Bombay Presidency possesses two great classes of forests--those of the hills and those of the alluvial plains. The hill forests are scattered over a wide area, extending from 23 deg. to 14 deg. N. lat. Most of them lie among the Sahyadri hills or Western Ghats. The alluvial forests lie in Sind, on or close to the banks of the Indus, and extend over an area of 550 sq. m. The principal timber trees in the forests are--teak; blackwood of two varieties (_Dalbergia Sisu_ and _Dalbergia latifolia_), _Dalbergia ujainensis, Pterocarpus Marsupium, Terminalia glabra, Acacia arabica, Acacia Catechu, Nauclea cordifolia, Nauclea parvifolia, Bidelia spinosa, Hardwickia binata, Juga xylocarpa, Populus euphratica_, and _Tamarindus indica_. The forests contain many trees which, on account of their fruits, nuts or berries, are valuable, irrespective of the quality of their timber. Among these are the mango (_Mangifera indica_); the jack (_Artocarpus integrifolia_), _Zizypkus Jujuba, Aegle Marmelos, Terminalia Chebula, Calophyllum Inophyllum, Bassia latifolia and Pongamia glabra_. The jungle tribes collect gum from several varieties of trees, and in Sind the Forest Department derives a small revenue from lac. The palms of the presidency consist of cocoa-nut, date, palmyra and areca catechu. _Population._--The census of 1901 gave a total of 25,468,209, out of which the chief religions furnished the following numbers:-- Hindu 19,916,438 Mahommedan 4,567,295 Jain 535,950 Zoroastrian 78,552 Christian 216,118