<62 NATURAL HISTORY. 



Particular winds, Aether direct or reflected, are 

 more violent than those which are general. An uni- 

 formly continued stream of air produces not such havo 

 as the fury of those winds which blow in sudden gusts. 

 The predominancy of certain winds, in certain parts, 

 has occasioned a general division of them into zones, 

 though it is not to be understood that their effects ar 

 invariable. The east wind, which extends 20 or SO 

 degrees on each side of the equator, occupies the torrid 

 zone, and the north wind the frigid zones. With regard 

 to the temperate zones, the winds which reign the: 

 are, if I may use the expression, only currents of air, 

 whose motion is composed of those two winds whose 

 direction tends to the west. And with respect to the 

 westerly winds, whose direction tends to the east, anxl 

 which often prevail in the temperate zone, whether in 

 the Pacific or Atlantic oceans, they may be considered 

 as winds reflected by the continents of Asia and A- 

 merica, but originally derived from the east and north 

 winds. 



The monsoons, or trade winds, which have an alter- 

 nate motion, are subject to many deviations. Some con- 

 tinue for a longer, some for a shorter time ; and they 

 also differ in their extent, and in their degree of vio- 

 lence. In the Indian ocean, for instance, between Af- 

 rica and India, as far as the Moluccas, the east wind 

 begins in January, and lasts till June. In the month 

 of August or September, the contrary motion begins ; 

 and the west winds reign during three or four months. 

 In the intervals of these monsoons, that is, at the end 

 of June, in the month of July, and beginning of Au- 

 gust, there is no wind on that sja; but it L> infested 

 with violent storms from the north. 



