94 EAST INDIA. 



the northern hemisphere presses towards the right. The 

 consequence is that tlie winds, which hit the Madras coast 

 at this time of the year, are mostly south-easterly breezes, 

 those which hit the southern half of the west coast come 

 from the south-west, while those which hit the land to 

 the north of Bombay become gradually more and more 

 north-westerly winds. These phenomena have the result 

 that Madras and the southern part of Bombay are passed over 

 by moist sea winds which drop a portion of their moisture, 

 producing during this period a rainfall of 3 to 6 inches. 

 The above-mentioned north-westerly breezes, however, descend 

 from the table land of Baluchistan ; they are dry and become 

 more so in passing over the heated plains of Sind, Cutch and 

 Kathiawar. These are the breezes which are known as the 

 hot winds in the Bombay Presidency, in North-Western and 

 Central India. At times they find their way as far as Bengal 

 and Orissa and far down into the Peninsula. 



Up to May the sea winds are light, and they bring only a 

 moderate amount of rain, as the air is then drawn chiefly 

 from the sea immediately surrounding the Peninsula. With 

 the advancing season towards the end of May the winds 

 become stronger and stronger bringing more and more rain, 

 until, in the course of three or four weeks, they have invaded 

 the whole of the west coast of India and the northern and 

 eastern coasts of the Bay of Bengal, an event which is 

 known as the bursting of the monsoon. Now the air comes 

 from more distant equatorial regions, the great reservoir of 

 moist air. 



The strength of the monsoon rains differs greatly in 

 different parts of India ; it depends on the configuration 

 of the country and the extent to which the sea breezes 

 succeed in overcoming and pushing back the north-westerly 

 air currents. The monsoon currents enter the Bay of Bengal 

 from the south-west and they strike against the coast of 

 Tenasserim in full force, rise and pour out a copious rainfall. 

 This holds good in a varying degree along the coast of Burma, 



