MONSOONS. 381 



nothing else than the passing of a belt of calms which separates 

 the monsoons from each other, and which, as we know, goes 

 annually with the sun from the south to the north, and back 

 over the torrid zone to and fro. 



711. Where they are, there the changing of the monsoons is going on. 

 — " So also the calms, which precede the land and sea winds, are 

 turned back. If, at the coming of the land-wind in the hills, we 

 go with it to the coast — to the sea, we shall perceive that it 

 shoves away the calms which preceded it from the hills to the 

 coast, and so far upon the sea as the land-wind extends. Here, 

 upon the limits of the permanent monsoon, the place for the 

 calms remains for the night, to be turned back to the land and 

 to the hills the following day by the sea- wind. In every place 

 where these calms go, the land and sea-winds turn back. If 

 various observers, placed between the hills and the sea, and 

 between the coast and the farthest limit of the land-wind, noted 

 the moment when they perceived the calms, and that when they 

 perceived the land-wind, then b}- this means they would learn 

 how broad the belt of calms has been, and with what rapidity 

 they are pushed over the sea and over the land. And even 

 though the results one day should be found not to agree very 

 well with those of another, they would at least obtain an average 

 thereof which would be of value. So, on a larger scale, the belt 

 of calms which separates the monsoons from each other presses 

 in the spring from the south to the north, and in the fall from 

 the north to the south, and changes the monsoons in every place 

 where it presses."* 



* Bijdrage Natmirkiindige Besclirijving der zeen, vertaald door M. H. Jansen, 

 Luitenaut ter zee. 



