364 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA, AND ITS METEOROLOGY. 



706 " During the changing of the monsoons, it is mostly calm 

 The east monsoon or cool, with gentle breezBS, varied with rain-storms 

 in the Java Sea. ^^^^ ijg]^|^ gales from all points of the compass. 

 They are harassing to the crew, who, with burning faces under 

 the clouded skies,* impatiently trim the sails to the changing 

 winds. However, the atmosphere generally becomes clear, and, 

 contrary to expectation, the north-east wind comes from a clear 

 sky ; about the coming of the monsoon it is northerly. Now the 

 clouds are again packed together ; the wind dies away, but it will 

 soon be waked up to come again from another point. Finally, 

 the regular land and sea breezes gradually replace rain, and tem- 

 pests, calms, and gentle gales. The rain holds up during the 

 day, and in the Java Sea we have the east monsoon. It is then 

 May. Farther to the south than the Java Sea the east monsoon 

 commences in April.t This monsoon prevails till September or 

 October, when it turns to become the west monsoon. It has 

 seemed to me that the east monsoon does not blow the same in 

 every month, that its direction becomes more southerly, and its 

 power greater after it has prevailed for some time.1: 



707. " It is sufficiently important to fix the attention, seeing 



Currents. that thoso circumstauccs have great influence upon 



the winds in the many straits of the Archipelago, in which strong 



breaks up, a portion of the liquid, and witli it anything it may contain, remains 

 attached to the ball. The fish, seeds, leaves, etc., etc., that have fallen to the 

 earth in rain-squalls, may have owed their elevation to the clouds to the same 

 cause that attaches a few drops of the liquid, with its particles of impurities, to 

 the ball." 



By reference to Plate Xm., we see that the phenomenon of thunder and light- 

 ning is of much more frequent occurrence in the North than in the South Atlantic ; 

 and I infer that we have more electrical phenomena in the northern than in the 

 southern hemisphere. Do water-spouts occur on one side of the equator more 

 frequently than they do on the other ? I have cruised a great deal on the southern 

 hemisphere, and never saw a water -spout there. According to the log-books at the 

 Observatory, they occur mostly on the north side of the equator. — M, 



* At sea tlie face and hands burn (change the skin) much quicker under a 

 clouded than under a clear sky. — Jansen. 



t In the north-east part of the Archipelago the east monsoon is the rainy mon- 

 soon. The phenomena in the north-east part are thus wholly different from those 

 in the Java Sea. — Jansen. 



X As is well known, the Strait of Soerabaya forms an elbow whose easterly 

 outlet opens to the east, while the westerly outlet opens to the north. In the 

 beginning of the east monsoon the sea- wind (east mor.'50on) blows through the 

 westerly entrance as far as Grissee (in the elbow) ; m the latter part of this 

 monsoon, the sea-wind blows, on the contrary, through the easterly entrance as far 

 as Sambilangan (the narrow passage where the westerly outlet opens into the sea). 

 — Jansen. 



