RANGE AND CLIMATE 23 



Philippines. — In the Philippine Islands^" the average over the whole 

 archipelago is 74 inches per year. The west side presents the usual tropical 

 phenomenon of a wet season. May to October, and a dry season, November 

 to April. In the eastern half of the islands the rainfall is fairly evenly 

 distributed, the least rain falling in the period February to April. 



In Formosa the distribution is very irregular ; at Keeling, in the extreme 

 north of the island, the fall amounts to 200 inches, but in other parts cane 

 can only be grown under irrigation. In Tucuman, in Argentina, the fall 

 for the years 1855-96 averaged only 36-8 inches. In Australia, in the 

 northern hmit of cane cultivation, the fall is about 80 inches, decreasing to 

 40 inches at Bundaberg, near the southern limit. Fiji is a locaUty with a very 

 heavy fall on the windward side, that at Suva averaging 130 inches ; the 

 climate there resembles that of the wet Hilo zone of the Hawaiian Islands, 

 Of districts outside the tropics, Madeira has an average fall of but 28 inches , 

 Louisiana resembles the tropic type ; at New Orleans^'" for the years 1887-96 

 the fall averaged 598 inches, the extremes being 46-0 and 753 inches. 

 Over the sugar belt the fall is rather greater, the maximum precipitation 

 occuring in the summer months. 



Failure of Rains. — Although, when averaged over a number of years, the 

 fall in the tropics is very even, both as regards periodicity and quantity, the 

 seasonal rains sometimes fail, leading to prolonged periods of drought. 

 It is in India that the failure of the wet monsoon has become most notorious, 

 as there it causes the occurrence of periodic famines. In the belt of equatorial 

 rains similar seasonal irregularities are also known ; thus at Paramaribo 

 (Dutch Guiana) the fall in 1899 was only 48-8 inches, the average for the 

 period 1897-1908 being 92-3 inches ; the next lowest fall was 76-4 inches, in 

 1906. The whole island of Cuba is liable to prolonged droughts, such having 

 happened in 1900 and 1908, and from the immensity of its production a 

 very disturbing influence on the sugar market follows ; in fact, almost 

 every sugar-producing district is liable to suffer in this way. The island 

 of Java seems to be most favoured in this respect if the relatively small areas 

 of Hawaii near Hilo, and the windward side of the Fiji Islands be excepted. 

 As a paradox it may be remarked that those localities that suffer least are the 

 very arid regions which have developed systems of irrigation, as in Peru 

 and the leeward sides of the Hawaiian Islands. On the other hand a great 

 excess of rainfall may fall in a short time. Falls of 10 inches in a day do 

 not excite comment in many parts of the tropics, and falls of as much as 

 20 inches in the same time are not uncommon ; what is one of the greatest 

 faUs on record occurred at Suva in Fiji, on August 8th, 1906, when 41 inches 

 fell in 13 hours. Prolonged spells of wet weather are also common, but the 

 damage they occasion is but small compared with what is due to a prolonged 

 drought. 



Rainfall and Altitude. — Besides latitude, altitude has a great effect on 

 rainfall, which invariably increases with elevation. The effect of altitude 

 is shown in the following statistics dealing with the widely separated localities 

 of Barbados, Java, and Oahu in the Hawaiian Islands. 



Barbados — Average of Years 1841-72. 



