i'jg2. on philosophical geography. l6i 



as in the northern hemisphere, and similar phenome- 

 na are also experienced. From the month of Octo- 

 ber till April, (that is, during summer in the southern 

 hemisphere) the monsoon sets in from the N. W. to S. E. 

 directly opposite to the course of the general trade 

 wind, as happens also in the northern ocean, during 

 their summer ; and here also, as in the northern he- 

 misphere, the general trade wind resumes its usual 

 course, during the winter season. 



Nothing can more perfectly fhow the justnef^ 

 of the theory of monsoons here given than this single 

 fact does ; and though the writer of this efsay thinks it 

 of much more consequence to make useful discoveries 

 than to be at much trouble about ascertaining to whom 

 these discoveries of right belong, yet he hopes it will 

 not be deemed impertinent in him, after a silence of i8 

 years, now, for the first time, barely to hint that 

 the above explanation of the monsoons was first pub- 

 lilhed by him, in the Encyclopedia Britannica, in the 

 month of July 1773, while Mr Cooke was yet out on 

 his first voyage of discovery, and from which he did 

 not return till seven months after this efsay was pub- 

 lilhed, at which time the writer of this efsay, from 

 the state of the winds that had been observed, without 

 hesitation foretold what has since been found to be 

 truth by succeeding navigators, that there did not 

 exist, nor ever would be found any continent, or large 

 islands in. the southern hemisphere, near the tropics, 

 unlefs it was New Holland alone. He takes notice of 

 this circumstaoce here, chiefly because it alFords the 

 strongest proof that can be required of the justnefs of 

 tJic explanation given, and also because it thus re- 



VOL. vii. i X , 



