BTOEMS, HURRICANES, AND lYPHOONS. 415 



part of this sea. In the square between 15° and 20^ north, 110^ 

 and 115° east, there appears to be a system of three monsoons; 

 that is, one from the north-east in October, Kovember, Decem- 

 ber, and January ; one from east in March and April, changing 

 in May; and another from the southward in June, July, and 

 August, changing in September. The great disturber of the 

 atmospheric equilibrium appears to be situated among the plains 

 and steppes of Asia ; their influence reaches up to the clouds, 

 and extends to the China Seas ; it is about the changing of the 

 monsoons that these awful gales, called typhoons and white 

 squalls, are most dreaded. 



783. The Mauritius hurricanes. — In like manner, the Mauritius 

 hurricanes, or the cyclones of the Indian Ocean, occur during 

 the unsettled state of the atmospheric equilibrium which takes 

 place at that debatable period during the contest between the 

 trade-wind force and the monsoon force (§ 699), and which 

 debatable period occurs at the changing of the monsoon, and 

 before either force has completely gained or lost the ascendency. 

 At this period of the year, the winds, breaking loose fi'om their 

 controlling forces, seem to rage with a fury that would break up 

 the very fountains of the deep. 



784:. The West India hurricanes.— Bo, too, v/ith the West India 

 hurricanes of the Atlantic ; these winds are most apt to occur 

 during the months of August and September. There ia, there- 

 fore, this remarkable difference between these gales and those 

 of the East Indies : the latter occur about the changing of 

 the monsoons, the former during their height. In August and 

 September, the south-west monsoons of Africa and the south- 

 east monsoons of the West Indies are at their height ; the agents 

 of one drawing the north-east trade-winds from the Atlantic into 

 the interior of New Mexico and Texas, the agents of the other 

 drawing them into the interior of Africa. These two forces, 

 pulling in opposite directions, assist now and then to disturb the 

 atmospheric equilibrium to such an extent that the most powerful 

 revulsions in the air are required to restore it. " The hurricane 

 season in the North Atlantic Ocean," says Jansen, "occurs 

 simultaneously with the African monsoons; and in the same 

 season of the year in which the monsoons prevail in the Korth 

 Indian Ocean and the China Sea, and upon the Western coast of 

 Central America, all the seas of the northern hemisphere have 

 the hurricane season. On the. contrary, the South Indian Ocean 



