Introduction: Seasons and Winds. 



21 



equator, and the lands, which had their dry season before, now get their wet 

 one, and those, which then had their rainy season, now have their fine one. 

 Though easy to be understood, this alternation of the seasons is often not a 

 little striking. See Map IV. 



Professor van der Stok of Batavia recognises 4 different types of Monsoons 

 in the East India Archipelago, about which he has most obligingly sent us (in 

 lit.) the following particulars. 



"There are various types of Monsoons in the Indian Archipelago: 



"First, the perfectly regular, the S. E. Trade-wind, or the S. E. Monsoon 

 blowing out of Australia, which prevails in the southern parts of the Archipelago 

 from April till October, characterized by dry weather (instances: Java, Bima in 

 the Lesser Sunda Islands, Macassar, S. Celebes, and Banjermassin, S. Borneo); 

 while from (October to April the heavily saturated AVest Monsoon is in force. 



"A second type is found, as your map'j also shows accurately, in South and 

 Middle Sumatra, especially on the west coast, and in the middle portion of 

 Borneo, where all through the year a tolerably equal quantity of rain descends 

 (instances: Padang, Siboga, Sintang, Singapore). For these conditions also your 

 map is suitable. 



"It is otherwise with the third type, of which examples in North Sumatra 

 and North Borneo are recorded. Here it is not possible to divide the year into 

 two halves in such a manner that the one contains the dry, the other the wet 

 season. (See below p. 29 under Borneo.) 



"Finally a fourth type is found in the eastern parts of the Archipelago 

 where, as in Amboina, Saparua, etc., the Monsoon-periods — at least on the 

 south side of the Island — are exactly reversed [as compared with the first 

 type], as your map also shows. As a whole Celebes also lies under the southern 

 Monsoon-division, for in North Celebes there is still to be found only a trace 

 of the February minimum whereby North Sumatra and North Borneo are 

 characterized". 



Change of climate at different altitudes. It is probably always the case that 

 the highlands of tropical islands have a very different climate from the coasts 

 and plains. In April, 1871 , when the fine season had begun at Manado, 

 Meyer could not start for the mountains of the Minahassa, as the rainy season 



was still going on there. 



The following table shows this: 



Average 

 of years 



April 

 mm 



May 

 mm 



June I July 

 mm mm 



Masarang (highlands) i 15 

 Manado (coast) .... 17 



256 



205 



249 

 167 



228 



179 



135 

 125 



In Java where meteorology has been much more thoroughly studied than 

 elsewhere in the Archipelago, Dr. J. J. de Hollander (Handl. Land- en 



•) An original MS. map, since revised and modified. 



