CHAP. II. J 



RAIN. 



65 



fall is most considerable, the number of rainless days 

 is the greatest. 1 An idea may be formed of the deluge 

 that descends in Colombo during the change of the 

 monsoon, from the fact that out of 72-4 inches, the 

 annual average there, no less than 20-7 inches fall 

 in April and May, and 21-9 in October and November, 

 a quantity one-third greater than the total rain-fall in 

 England throughout an entire year. 



In one important particular the phenomenon of the 

 Dekkan affords an analogy to that which presents itself 

 in Ceylon. During the south-west monsoon the clouds 

 are driven against the lofty chain of mountains that 

 overhang the western shore of the peninsula, and their 

 condensed vapour descends there in copious showers. 

 The winds, thus early robbed of their moisture, carry- 

 but little rain to the plains of the interior, and whilst 

 Malabar is saturated by daily showers, the sky of Coro- 

 mandel is clear and serene. In the north-east monsoon 

 a condition the very opposite exists ; the wind that then 

 prevails being much drier, and the hills which it en- 

 counters of lower altitude, the rains are carried further 

 towards the interior, and whilst the weather is unsettled 

 and stormy on the eastern shore, the western is compa- 

 ratively exempt, and enjoys a calm and cloudless sky. 2 



In like manner the west coast of Ceylon presents a 

 contrast with the east, both in the volume of rain in 

 each of the respective monsoons, and in the influence 

 which the same monsoon exerts simultaneously on the 

 one side of the island and on the other. The greatest 



