CHAP. II.] CLIMATE. 55 



average scarcely exceeds 80 at Colombo, though in 

 exceptional years it has risen to 86. But at no period 

 of the day are dangerous results to be apprehended 

 from exposure to the sun ; and except during parts of 

 the months of March and April, there is no season when 

 moderate exercise is not practicable and agreeable. 

 For half the year, from October to May, the prevailing 

 winds are from the north-east, and during the remaining 

 months the south-west monsoon blows steadily from the 

 great Indian Ocean. The former, affected by the wintry 

 chills of the vast tracts of Northern Asia which it traverses 

 before crossing the Bay of Bengal, is subject to many local 

 variations and intervals of calm. But the latter, after 

 the first violence of its outset is abated, becomes nearly 

 uniform throughout the period of its prevalence, and 

 presents the character of an on-shore breeze extending 

 over a prodigious expanse of sea and land, and exert- 

 ing a powerful influence along the regions bordering on 

 India. 



In Ceylon the proverbial fickleness of the winds, and 

 the uncertainty which characterises the seasons in north- 

 ern climates, is comparatively unknown ; and the occur- 

 rence of changes or rain may be anticipated with con- 

 siderable accuracy in any month of a coming year. 

 There are, of course, abnormal seasons with higher 

 ranges of temperature, heavier rains, or droughts of 

 longer continuance, but such extremes are exceptional 

 and rare. Great atmospheric changes occur only at 

 two opposite periods of the year, and so gradual is their 

 approach that the climate is almost monotonous, and 

 one longs for " the falling of the leaf " to diversify the 

 sameness of perennial verdure. The line is faint which 

 divides the seasons. No period of the year is divested 

 of its seed-time and its harvest in some part of the 

 island ; and fruit hangs ripe on the same branches that 

 are garlanded with opening buds. But as every plant 

 has its own period for the production of its flowers and 

 fruit, each month is characterised by its peculiar flora. 



4 



