60 



PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



fPART I. 



tMs time nearly attained liis greatest northern declina- 

 tion, and created a torrid heat throughout the lands of 

 southern Asia and the peninsula of India. The air, 

 lightened by its high temperature and such watery 

 vapour as it may contain, rises into loftier regions and 

 is replaced by indraughts from the neighbouring sea, 

 and thus a tendency is gradually given to the forma- 

 tion of a current bringing up from the south the warm 

 humid ah^ of the equator. The wind, therefore, which 

 reaches Ceylon comes laden with moisture, taken up in 

 its passage across the great Indian Ocean. As the 

 monsoon draws near, the days become more overcast 

 and hot, banks of clouds rise over the ocean to the west, 

 and in the pecuhar twilight the eye is attracted by 

 the unusual whiteness of the sea-birds that sweep along 

 the strand to seize the objects flung on shore by the 

 rising sm"f. 



At last the sudden lio-htnin2;s flash amonor the hiUs 

 and sheet through the clouds that overhang the sea^, 

 and with a crash of thunder the monsoon bursts over 

 the thn-sty land, not in showers or partial torrents, 

 but in a wide deluge, that in the course of a few hom^s 

 overtops the river banks and spreads in inundations over 

 every level plain. 



All the phenomena of this explosion are stupendous : 

 thunder, as we are accustomed to be awed by it in 

 Europe, affords but the faintest idea of its overpowering 

 grandeur in Ceylon, and its subhmity is infinitely 

 increased as it is faintly heard from the shore, re- 

 sounding through night and darkness over the gloomy 

 sea. The hghtning, when it touches the earth where 



^ The lightnings of Ceylon are so 

 remarkable, that in the middle ages 

 they were as well known to the 

 Arabian seamen, who coasted the 

 island on their way to China, as in 

 later times the storms that infested 

 the Cape of Good Hope were familiar 

 to early navigators of Portngal. In 

 the Mohit of SiDi Ali Ciielebi, 



translated by Von Hammer, it is 

 stated that to seamen, sailing from 

 Diu to Malacca, " the sign of Ceylon 

 being near is continual lightning, h& 

 it accompanied by raiii or without 

 rain ; so that 'the lightning of Ceylon' 

 is proverbial for a liar ! " — Journ. 

 Asiat. Soc. Beiuf. v. 406. 



