156 on philosophical geography. Feb. i. 



and from the S. E. on the south of the line, through- 

 out the whole year. 



It will easily be understood, from what is here said, 

 that the point towards which these winds tend will 

 not be invariably the same throughout the whole year, 

 but that it will vary a little in different seasons, ap- 

 proaching nearer the tropic of Cancer during our sum- 

 mer, and inclining more to that of Capricorn in winter. 

 This is so obvious as to require only to be slightly 

 mentioned. 



Of monsoons. 



The monsoons are a variation of the general trade 

 ^yinds, which prevail only in certain places within the 

 tropics. They blow, in general, nearly six months 

 in one direction, and then, after a fhort interval of va- 

 riable and stormy weather, they change and blow 

 for nearly other six months in a direction precisely op- 

 posite to their former course. This variation of the 

 trade wind is found to take place in all parts of the 

 Indian ocean, to the north of the line, and beyond the 

 Straits of Malacca, as far as the island of Formosa, 

 •on the Chinese coast, and among the islands to the 

 southward of that. Monsoons also prevail, for a 

 small distance to the south of the equator, among the 

 islands stretching from the straits of Malacca towards 

 New Holland : as may be seen in the map, in which 

 the monsoons are denoted by double darts, and no 

 ivhere else in the southern hemisphere. 



The causes of the general trade winds have been 



long known, and distinctly explained in many philoso- 



. phical treatises j but the cause of the monsoons has 



