MONSOONS. 375 



701. Tlie curved form of the equatorial calm belt in the Indian 

 Ocean. — The equatorial calm belt in the Indian Ocean is a 

 decided curve. The peculiar form may be ascribed to the 

 meteorological influence of the Indian peninsula upon the calm 

 belt, and in this way : The north-east monsoon brings the rainy 

 season to the Coromandel coast and to the east coast of Ceylon. 

 This rainy season embraces the land rather than tlie sea. The 

 latent heat that is liberated during these rains, together with 

 the effect of the solar ray upon this tongue of land, has the effect 

 of expanding the air over it, and so " deadening " the north-east 

 monsoon. In the mean time, the meteorological influences from 

 Africa on one side, and Australia on the other, tend to draw the 

 wind in towards those lands and so retard the edges of the south- 

 east trades, thus giving the calm belt the curved form shown in 

 the plate. 



702. The winter monsoons, — In the winter-time, and during the 

 north-east monsoon, there is in the calm belt which intervenes 

 between that monsoon and the south-east trades, a belt of winter 

 or westerly monsoons. It, too, is curved, as shown (Plate VIII.) 

 by the two lines drawn to represent its mean limits about 

 the 1st of March. This is a most remarkable phenomenon, for 

 which no satisfactory explanation has been suggested. It ex- 

 tends nearly, if not entij'ely, across the Pacific Ocean also, and 

 the winds all the way in it prevail from the westward. The 

 extreme breadth of this winter monsoon belt is about 9° or 10° 

 of latitude. In the Indian Ocean, its middle is between the 

 equator and 5° S. ; in the Pacific, between the equator and 5° N. ; 

 in the Atlantic, between 5° and 10° N. In the Atlantic it is a 

 summer monsoon easily to be accounted for. This belt of sub- 

 monsoons, considering its great length and small breadth, is one 

 of the most remarkable phenomena in maiine meteorology. 



703. The monsoons of Australasia. — The north-west monsoons 

 of Australia come from this belt ; there it is widened, for these 

 winds extend far down the west coast of that continent. The 

 Malayan and Australasian archipelago have a complication ^of 

 monsoons and sub-monsoons. The land and sea breezes impart 

 to them peculiar features in many places, especiall}^ about the 

 changing of the monsoons, as described by Jansen in his appendix 

 to the Dutch edition of this work : " AVe have seen," says he 

 " that the calms which precede the sea breeze generally continue 

 longer, and are accompanied with an upward motion of the air. 



