METEOROLOGICAL CONDITIONS. 21 



from January to March, but the wind is here very irregular, veering at any time six 

 points to either side of north-east. Heavy rain squalls are frequent during the whole of 

 the monsoon in the southern atolls, but the wind, although often blowing very fresh, has 

 little weight. Fine weather, little rain and calms may be expected at the same time to 

 the north of Male atoll. 



The south-west monsoon is not felt in Addu atoll, where the "Pilot" states that from 

 May to December the winds are from west to south and S.S.E. with much rain and squalls. 

 It is well set in the Maldives during the months of June, July and August ; fresh gales 

 with heavy rain squalls occur frequently from any direction within four points of south- 

 west. The period in the Laccadives is rather longer, the south-west wind usually becoming 

 definitely set towards the end of May and continuing regularly until September. As already 

 mentioned in the "Introduction" it did not in 1899 commence at Minikoi until the second 

 week in August, up to which time the prevailing winds were from west to W.N.W. 



The months, which intervene between the monsoons, form in the Maldives a period 

 during which winds from any direction may be felt. Fresh gales of short duration tend 

 to come up, the wind commonly veering from the north or south, right round to east, or 

 west. In April we experienced in the channels between Addu and Suvadiva, and between 

 the latter and Haddumati, heavy gales from the west. Dui-ing these intervening periods 

 cyclonic storms or hurricanes are especially liable to occur in the Arabian Sea. I have 

 obtained no record of winds of this force having been ever experienced further south than 

 Male atoll. They occasionally sweep over Tiladummati and Ihavandifulu atolls, the last 

 occasion remembered by the natives being in February about 24 years ago, when very 

 great destruction is stated to have been wrought among the larger native vessels, many 

 of which were at the time lying at anchor in the lagoons. As negative evidence of the 

 absence of such strong winds I may refer to the fact that throughout the Maldives I 

 have found no true negro-heads — actual parts of the reef — which have been thrown up 

 by the breakers on to the reef-flat. Hurricanes visit Minikoi at intervals of about 12 years, 

 but, their centres usually lying considerably to the north, they may practically be neglected 

 as factors in shaping the original reef and land. The more northern parts of the Lac- 

 cadives are, however, much affected. The effects of hurricanes in this locality are admirably 

 described in the following account of one, which visited Kalpeni in 1847: — 'The sea washed 

 over the island, and the storm-wave carried away the very soil of the narrower parts. Of 

 1600 inhabitants 2.50 were washed away and drowned in that night, 100 to 150 died of 

 famine and disease, about 450 remain on the island and the rest have dispersed them- 

 selves. Of a lakh (100,000) of (coconut) trees about 700 sickly ones are standing'." At 

 Androt of a population of over 3000 only 900 were left after the same hurricane. 



The currents are of course largely dependent on the winds and tide. The direction 

 from November to March in the Maldives to the north of lat. 2° N. varied from north- 

 west to south-west ; the drift in the centre of the group averaged about 18 miles per diem 

 during the same time. Although we experienced strong winds from the west during April 

 in the " Equatorial " and the " One-and-a-half-Degree " channels, there was at the same 

 time practically no current. The native skippers, however, will not start across either 

 channel unless the wind is fairly strong and at least nine points off the direct line from 



1 "Keport on the Laccadive Islands," dated 19 May, 1848, by W. Robinson, Esq., Madras, p. 76, 1874. 



