RAIN. 107 



falls in the exposed westerly parts, such as the coast of Portu- 

 gal, Spain, France, Britain, and Norway. There are certain 

 conditions, however, under which rain is brought to our islands 

 by easterly rather than westerly winds." 



Maury, in his " Physical Geography of the 

 Sea," * on page 120, says : 



" We shall now be enabled to determine, if the views which 

 I have been endeavoring to present be correct, what parts of 

 the earth are subject to the greatest fall of rain. They should 

 be on the slopes of those mountains which the trade-winds or 

 monsoons first strike after having blown across the greatest 

 tract of ocean. The more abrupt the elevation, and the shorter 

 the distance between the mountain-top and the ocean, the 

 greater the amount of precipitation. If, therefore, we com- 

 mence at the parallel of about thirty degrees north in the Pa- 

 cific, where the northeast trade-winds first strike that ocean, and 

 trace them through their circuits till they meet high land, we 

 ought to find such a place of heavy rains. Commencing at 

 this parallel of thirty degrees, therefore, in the North Pacific, 

 and tracing thence the course of the northeast trade- winds, 

 we shall find that they blow thence, and reach the region of 

 equatorial calms near the Caroline Islands. Here they rise 

 up ; but, instead of pursuing the same course in the upper 



* Reprinted, by permission, from " The Physical Geography 

 of the Sea, and its Meteorology," by M. F. Maury, LL.D., 

 U.S.N. New York : Harper & Brothers, Publishers, Franklin 

 Square. 



