442 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



of the commodity on his own account into the Scottish market. Accordingly, he freighted 

 his vessel ; made sail; crossed the Bay of Biscay in a gale; got into the trade winds, and 

 scudded before them, at the rate of seven knots an hour, trusting to his dead reckoning 

 all the way. He spoke no vessel during the whole voyage ; and never once saw land 

 until on the morning of the thirty-fifth day, when he descried St. Vincent's right ahead, 

 and running down, under a light breeze, along the windward coast of the island, came to 

 anchor. The private signal of the little vessel was unknown to any of the merchants, 

 and it immediately attracted notice. The natives were perfectly astonished they had 

 never heard of such a feat before ; and deemed it quite impossible that a mere fishing 

 smack, worked only by four men, and commanded by an ignorant master, should plough 

 the billows of the Atlantic, and reach the West Indies in safety yet so it was. This 

 relation justifies the title given by the Spaniards to the zone where the trade winds are 

 constant, el Golpo de las Damas, the Sea of the Ladies, on account of the ease with 

 which it may be navigated, the uniform temperature prevalent night and day, and its 

 pacific aspect. 



2. Monsoons. These are periodical winds, which sweep the northern part of the Indian 

 Ocean, changing their direction after an interval of about six months, and hence the term 

 Monsoon, the Anglicised form of the Persic mousum, or the Malay moossin, signifying a 

 season, referring to their periodicity. Avoiding all minute detail, we shall merely give 

 the range, direction, and duration of these singular, yet highly useful currents, and that 

 in a very general way. From 3 south of the equator to the northern shores of the Indian 

 Ocean, including the Arabian Sea, the Bay of Bengal, and the Chinese Sea, a south-west 

 wind blows from April to October, and then a north-east wind sets in, and prevails 

 through the next half year, from October to April. From 3 to 10 south of the equator 

 a south-east wind blows from April to October, and a northrwest during the suceeding six 

 months. Without attending to local variations, these are the general phenomena. There 

 is a south-west wind prevailing north of the equator from April to October, and southward 

 of this, through a certain space, at the same season, a south-east wind. There is a north- 

 east wind north of the equator from October to A*pril, and coincidently, a north-west wind 

 between 3 and 10 south of the line. The western boundary of the region of the 

 monsoons is the African shore ; its eastern limit is supposed to be about the meridian of 

 136 east longitude, which cuts the island of New Guinea; its northern confine is near 

 the parallel of 27 north latitude, which intersects the Loo Choo islands ; its southern 

 extremity has been already stated. The monsoons are much stronger than the trade 

 winds, and may be called gales, but they are by no means of uniform force, either as it 

 respects themselves or each other, the same monsoon occasionally blowing with such 

 violence that ships are obliged to reef their sails. It must not be imagined that these 

 winds are confined to the ocean. They extend over the whole of Hindustan to the 

 Himalaya, the north-east monsoon bringing copious rains to its eastern shores, and the 

 south-west monsoon performing the same office for its western coast. 



The change of the monsoon the periodical shifting of the wind the most singular 

 feature of the case, is a gradual process, usually occupying about a month, which reduces 

 the reign of the two annual monsoons, north and south of the equator, to five months each, 

 the remaining two months being spent in the transitions. In each interval of change, 

 calms, light variable breezes, alternate with storms of tremendous violence. Mr. Gaunter 

 thus describes the scene at Madras, in the interim between the cessation of one monsoon 

 and the setting in of another : " On the 15th of October, the flag-staff was struck, as a 

 signal for all vessels to leave the roads, lest they should be overtaken by the monsoon. 

 On that very morning some premonitory symptoms of the approaching * war of elements ' 

 had appeared. As the house we occupied overlooked the beach, we could behold the 



