JAVA 115 



equator, rain and sunshine are more or less distributed 

 throughout the year. At the change of the monsoons 

 the weather is often unsettled and tempestuous, with 

 violent thunderstorms, which in the mountains are often 

 destructive of life. Batavia experiences annually an 

 average of over one hundred thunderstorms. That the 

 permanent winds from the eastward prevail over the 

 monsoons at the higher altitudes is made evident by the 

 westerly direction taken by the smoke of the volcanoes, 

 and the constancy of this current is shown by the 

 erosion of the western side of the lips of the craters, 

 as may be well seen in the case of Merapi. Land and 

 sea breezes are experienced within fifteen miles of the 

 northern and southern coasts, while in some parts of the 

 east end, which exhibits a considerably greater aridity 

 than the west, the south-east monsoon blows violently 

 across the entire island. 



Although Java has not such a great rainfall as 

 Sumatra, owing in a measure to its being protected by 

 that island, it is nevertheless considerable, although 

 naturally varying very much with the locality. At 

 Batavia the mean annual rainfall is 75 inches, but at 

 Buitenzorg, the hill -station of that city, it averages 

 185 inches, or more than four times that recorded from 

 the eastern end of the island. December, January, 

 and February are the most rainy months, averaging in 

 Batavia about 18 inches in each month, while in July 

 and August the amount recorded is little over 2 

 inches. The island, lying out of the track of typhoons, 

 shows a very steady barometer, and during observations 

 extending over some years '36 inch was recorded as its 

 extreme range of variation. The variations of tem- 

 perature are likewise very small upon the coast. The 

 result of twelve years' observations at the Government 



