Sunda Strait: Winds and Currents 19 



3, In the Sunda Strait: winds and ocean-currents. 



On the same day we had an opportunity of botanising on another 

 rarely visited locality of the Javan coast. The " Snip " steamed across 

 the Sunda Strait at its broadest western part to the most westerly 

 promontory of Java, "Java's First Point." In a strong wind and 

 rough sea this passage in a steamer of only 300 tons was the reverse 

 of pleasant and put the passengers to a severe test. The sky fortu- 

 nately remained partially overcast and the temperature was bearable. 

 During the night the thermometer sank to 27 C. and at midday in 

 the shade registered only 29 G C. The preparation of the algae, 

 which we had collected, and the work of drying the plants on the 

 narrow deck of the rolling and pitching boat were carried out under 

 difficulties. Even Sahib, my industrious servant and a seasoned 

 traveller, at last found his accustomed duties no longer "enak" 

 (palatable), and we followed the example of the others who had long- 

 ago stretched themselves on chairs and forms in their endeavours 

 to resist with more or less success the effects of the pitching and 

 tossing of the ship. 



We were now (the Krakatau group lies approximately 105 25' 

 east long, and 6 10' south lat.) in the middle of the equatorial belt of 

 the monsoon disturbances both in the atmosphere and the water. A 

 strong south-east monsoon drove the waves directly against us. As 

 the boat steered her course against wind and waves towards the next 

 port of call, the captain, Mr Nix, who had for many years made 

 three voyages a month in his small coasting steamer in the Sunda 

 Strait, visiting twenty-one lighthouse-stations on the north coast of 

 Java and on the neighbouring coasts of Sumatra and Borneo, 

 courteously gave us information as to the winds and currents in the 

 Java Sea and especially in the Sunda Strait. The following details in 

 regard to the air- and sea-currents, which are of the greatest import- 

 ance from the point of view of the history of plant-colonisation of the 

 Krakatau islands, are based in part on information supplied by Mr Nix 

 and are extended and confirmed from data published in the sailing- 

 handbook of the German Admiralty 1 and from other sources 2 . 



The south-east monsoon begins, in the wider regions of the Sunda 

 Strait, on the north and south coasts of Java and in South Sumatra, 



1 Neumayer, G. (Direction der deutschen Seewarte.) Segelhandbuch fur den 

 indischen Ozeav. Hamburg, 1892. 



- Neumayer, G. Ardeitung zn wisseuxcluiftlichen Beobachtungen auf Reisen. 

 in. Autt. 1906. 



Hunn, J. Handbuch der Klimatologie. n. Bd. Stuttgart, 1897. 



Boguslawski, G. v., and Kriimmel. Handbuch der Ozeanographie. I. Bd. 1884. 

 II. Bd. 1898. 



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