Introduction: Seasons and Winds 25 



on Dr. van der Stok's monthly charts'). The fine season over most of the is- 

 land is during the S.E. Monsoon between x\pril and the beginning of November, 

 the rainy season from November till March, when North-west or North winds 

 are predominant. To this rule there are many exceptions, sometimes due to 

 location, sometimes to shelter from the high mountains. 



Touching the Minahassa, Graafland writes (De Minahassa 1867 I, t): 

 "The changing of the Monsoons here takes place almost imperceptibly. One 

 passes over from the East to the West Monsoon without noticing it otherwise 

 than by the more or less plentiful showers and thunderstorms; and even this 

 is not regular. There are years in which the West Monsoon brings so little rain 

 that poor rice-harvests are the sensible result, while there are again other years 

 when too much rain causes the rotting of the crop. The West or rainy season 

 is calculated to be from the middle of October to the middle of April, but 

 this is not at all certain". Dr. Riedel writes fin lit.) that during the N.W. 

 Monsoon the sea is rough on the north coast of the Peninsula, which faces the 

 wind, while on the south coast the wind is less heavy and blows out to sea. 

 The plantations are harvested everywhere at the same time, and the rice is 

 sown in October — November. There is, however, as Dr. van der Stok's tables 

 show, a marked difference in rainfall between the north and south coasts of 

 the Peninsula; when the N.W. Monsoon is blowing') Manado and Kwandang on 

 the north receive two or three times as much rain as Kema and Gorontalo 

 some 20 miles distant on the south. The interior of the country is mountainous, 

 and, as is clear from Dr. de Hollander's remarks on Java, the N.W. Monsoon 

 is a superficial, somewhat shallow wind, and it is doubtless held back and de- 

 prived of its moisture to a great extent by the hills. During the N.W. Monsoon 

 the shipping is carried on at Kema, while during the S.E. Monsoon everything in 

 this way is done at the more important settlement of Manado. Meyer arrived 

 at Manado in November, 1870, having been misinformed by Mr. Wallace that 

 October is the beginning of the fine season for this region. Travellers should 

 go there in April and the following months, though on the south coast of the 

 Minahassa, at Kema for instance, the weather is much better and even fine 

 in the rainy season. September is the driest month of the year. 



The western portion of the N. Peninsula seems to be exposed at most 

 times of the year to N. and N.W. and S.W. winds blowing out of the Celebes 

 Sea, and Tontoli at the N.W. angle of the Peninsula cannot be said to have 

 a rainy season, but has a tolerably equal rainfall throughout the year. 



The following tables, extracted from the "Regenwaarnemingen in Neder- 

 landsch- Indie", 1895, show the diff"erences in rainfall and rainy days at different 

 places in the N. Peninsula: 



1) See: van der St ok: Wind and Weather, Currents, Tides and Tidal Streams in the East Indian 

 Archipelago (Batavia, 1897. Broad folio). 



-) The "Directory for the Indian Archipelago" 187U p. 22, states that on that part of the island situated N. 

 of the equator the N.E. Monsoon in October replaces the S.W., wrongly adding that it makes the fine season. 

 Meyer & Wiglesworth, Birds of Celcles (May 4th, 189S). J 



