34 THE WORLD'S WONDERS. 



from 25 to 70 inches ; in Europe from 15 to 104 ; in the 

 Atlantic doldrums it reaches 225. So copious is the rainfall at 

 times that fresh water has been dipped up from the surface of 

 the tropical seas. 



Proceeding north or south from the belt of calms, we come to 

 a region characterized by two rainy and two dry seasons. The 

 rainy seasons take place while the sun is passing the zenith, 

 more or less neutralizing the influence of the trade-winds. In 

 Jamaica, for example, the first rainy season begins in April, the 

 second in October ; the first dry season in June, the second in 

 December. Toward the verge of the tropics follow the zones 

 characterized by a single rainy and a single dry season ; the rains 

 lasting from the vernal to the autumnal equinox. 



The two rainy seasons which characterize the middle zone 

 between each tropic and the equator have a tendency to merge 

 into one rainy season of six months' duration on advancing 

 toward the tropics, and into a perpetual rainy season on 

 approaching the equator. As the sun goes north or south he 

 opens the flood-gates of the heavens, and closes them behind 

 him as he passes to the other hemisphere, while he keeps them 

 continually open where he is always vertical. But this general 

 state of things, which would be the normal condition of the 

 tropical regions if their surface was an unbroken sheet of water, 

 and no disturbing forces existed, is liable to great modifications. 

 Thus in the monsoon region, extending from the eastern coast of 

 Africa to the northern part of Australia, and from the tropic of 

 Capricorn to the Himalayas and China, it is not the sun directly, 

 but the winds that regulate the periodical rains. Thus in India 

 and the Malayan peninsula the western coasts are watered during 

 the southwest monsoon, which prevails from Aprfi to October ; 

 and the eastern coasts during the northeast monsoon, from 

 October to April. For example, the southwest wind condenses 

 its vapor on the western side of the Ghauts, the northeast on 

 the eastern ; so that violent rains fall daily on the coast of Coro- 

 mandel, while it is the reverse on that of Malabar, and vice 

 versa. In the southern hemisphere the rainy season corresponds. 



