64 



PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



[Part I. 



Wind N.E. 



Temperature 24 hours: 



Mean greatest . 85° 



Mean least . . 70° 



Rain (inches) . . 4-3 



a comparative vacuum, towards which the less rarefied 

 atmospheric fluid is drawn down from the regions 

 north of the tropic, bringing with it the cold and dry 

 winds from the Himalayan Alps, and the lofty ranges 

 of Assam. The great change is heralded as before by 

 oppressive calms, lurid sides, vivid hghtning, bursts 

 of thunder, and tumultuous rain. But at this change 

 of the monsoon the atmospheric disturbance is less 

 striking than in May ; the previous temperature is lower, 

 the moisture of the air is more reduced, and the change 

 is less agreeably perceptible from the southern breeze 

 to the dry and parching wind from the north. 



December. — In December the sun attains to its 

 greatest southern declination, and the 

 wind setting steadily from the north- 

 east, brings with it light but frequent 

 rains from tlie Bay of Bengal. The 

 thermometer shows a maximum temperature of 85° with 

 a minimum of 70° ; the morning and the afternoon are 

 again enjoyable in the open ah, but at night every 

 lattice that faces the north is cautiously closed against 

 the treacherous " along-shore- wind." 



Notwithstanding the violence and volume in which 

 the rains have been here described as descending during 

 the paroxysms of the monsoons, the total rain-fall 

 in Ceylon is considerably less than on the continent of 

 India. Throughout Hindustan the annual mean is 11 7 '5 

 inches, and on some parts on the Malabar coast, upwards 

 of 300 inches have fallen in a single year ^ ; whereas 

 the average in Ceylon rarely exceeds 80, and the highest 

 quantity registered in an exceptional season was 120 

 inches. 



The distribution is of course unequal, both as to 

 time and locahties, and in those districts where the 



^ At Maliabalesliwav, m the West- 

 ern Gliauts, the annual mean is 254 

 inches^ and at Uttray MiilLaj^, in 



Malabar, 263 ; whilst at Bengal it is 

 209 inches at Sylhet; and 010-3 at 

 Cherraponga. 



