MONSOONS. 



353 



from Colonel Sykes's report of the rain-fall of India, those places 

 which happen to be nearest the same meridian, and about 2^ of 

 latitude apart, the following statement is made, with the view of 

 showino*, as far as such data can show, the time at which the 

 ramy season commences in the mterior : 



It is June before the S.W. monsoons have backed down as far as 

 the equator and have regularly set in there. 



688. These positions are selected without regard to elevation 

 Its influences upon above the soa lovel. Of course, when the S.W. 

 the monsoons. monsoou comes only from a short distance out to 

 sea, as in April it does, it is but lightly loaded with moisture. 

 The low country cannot condense it, and it then remains for the 

 mountain stations in the interior, such as Cherraponjie, to get the 

 first rains of the season ; and a most interesting physical problem 

 may be here put on the road to solution by the question : — Does 

 not the rainy season of the S.W. monsoon commence at the high 

 stations in the interior, as on the sides of the Himalaya, earlier 

 than in the flat country along the sea-coast ? 



689. With the view of investigating certain monsoon pheno- 

 The march of the moua, rocourso was had to our great magazine of 

 monsoons. undigested facts, the abstract logs ; and after dis- 

 cussing not less than 11,697 observations on the winds at sea 

 between the meridians of 80^ and 85^ E., and from Calcutta to 

 the equator, results were obtained for the following table, in 

 which is stated in days the average monthly duration of the N.E. 

 and S.W. winds at sea between the parallels of — 



2 A 



