3G8 niYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA, AND ITS METEOROLOGY. 



It is June before the S.W. monsoons have backed do\vn as far as 

 the equator and have regularly set in there. 



688. Its influences upon the monsoons. — These positions are 

 selected without regard to elevation above the sea level. Of 

 course, when the S.W. monsoon 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 Himala^^a, earlier than in the flat country along the 

 sea- coast ? 



.'- 689. 7^e march of the monsoons. — With the view of investigat- 

 ing certain monsoon phenomena, recourse was had to our great 

 magazine of 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 — 



* Setting in of the S.W. monsoon. f Ending of the S.W. 



It appears from this table that between Calcutta and 

 the S.W. monsoons are the prevailing winds for seven 

 the N.E. for five. 



the line 

 months. 



690. TJieir conflict— it begins at the north. — Picsorting to the 



