22 CHAPTER III 



West Indies. — A second great sugar-producing region, the West Indies, 

 also has its cHmate divided into a wet and a dry season, the former as in the 

 East Indies coinciding with the hot weather. Thus in Cuba the rains usually 

 begin in May and continue to November, the period December to April 

 being one of comparatively little fall. This whole area is not one of relatively 

 heavy rain, as is shown by the statistics quoted below. ^ 



Rainfall in Cuba for the Years i 907-11. — Inches. 



In Barbados'' the rainfall for the years 1898-1907 was as shown in the 

 table below. 



Rainfall in Barbados — Inches. 



In other of the West Indian Islands, notably Antigua and St. Croix, the 

 precipitation is normally much less and often does not exceed 30 inches 

 in the whole year. Trinidad, on the other hand, belongs to the equatorial 

 rainbelt type. 



Hawaii and Mauritius. — The climates of the Hawaiian Islands and of 

 Mauritius and Reunion, lying equal distances respectively north and south 

 of the equator, present certain points of interest and similarity. The 

 windward side of Hawaii lies in a zone of nearly constant rainfall, the average 

 at Hilo (40 feet) being 139 inches per annum, ^ with a remarkably even 

 distribution ; even more than this is registered at plantations in the same 

 rain belt that lie at higher elevations. Thus the average fall at Onomea 

 at 250 feet elevation is 189 inches, and for that very wet year, 1918, it reached 

 308 inches. At Olaa mill, 225 feet, the average fall is 153 inches, rising 

 on the same plantation to 207 inches at 1530 feet elevation. At Hakalau, 

 at the 1,200 foot elevation, it is 276 inches. These two last places, which 

 lie on the extreme upper limits of cane cultivation, are probably the wettest 

 where the cane is grown. 



On the lee side of Hawaii and on the littoral of the other islands, Maui, 

 Kauai and Oahu, the climate passes to the continental desert type, with an 

 average fall of about 20 inches per annum at sea level. In the mountainous 

 interiors of all the islands the fall is very heavy. This distribution is the 

 effect of the moisture-charged north-east trade winds meeting the cold 

 surfaces of the mountains. Similarly, the north and east of Mauritius 

 belong to the continental desert type, the interior and south-west being in 

 a zone of heavy precipitation. Averaged all over Mauritius^ for the 40 

 years, 1863 1902, the fall was 79 inches, with extremes as in Hawaii all the 

 way from 20 inches to 150 inches or more. In contradistinction to the 

 general tropical rule in these islands, it is the cold season that coincides 

 with the period of maximum precipitation. 



