LAND AND SEA BREEZES. 109 



245. "Finally, tlie "king of day" sinks to rest; now tlie mist 

 gradually disappears, and as soon as the wind has laid down the 

 lash, the sea, which, chafing and fretting, had with curled mane 

 resisted its violence, begins to go down also. Presently both 

 winds and waves are hushed, and all is again still. Above the 

 sea, the air is clearer or slightly clouded ; above the land, it is 

 thick, dark, and swollen. To the feelings, this stillness is pleas- 

 ant. The sea-breeze, the driving brine that has made a salt-pan 

 of the face, the short, restless sea, the dampness — all have grown 

 wearisome, and welcome is the calm. There is, however, a some- 

 what of dimness in the air, an uncertain but threatening appear- 

 ance. Presently, from the dark mass of clouds, which hastens the 

 change of day into night, the thunder-storm peals forth. The rain 

 falls in torrents in the mountains, and the clouds gradually over- 

 spread the whole sky. But for the wind, which again springs 

 up, it would be alarming to the sailor, who is helpless in a calm. 

 What change will take place in the air ? The experienced sea- 

 man, who has to work against the trade-wind or against the mon- 

 soon, is off the coast, in order to take advantage of the land-breeze 

 (the destroyer of the trade) so soon as it shall come. He rejoices 

 when the air is released from the land and the breeze comes, at 

 first feebly, but afterward growing stronger, as usual, during the 

 whole night. If the land-breeze meets with a squall, then it is 

 brief, and becomes feeble and uncertain. We sometimes find then 

 the permanent sea-breeze close to the coast, which otherwise re- 

 mains twenty or more English miles from it. 



246. " One is not always certain to get the land-breeze at the 

 fixed time. It sometimes suffers itself to be waited for ; some- 

 times it tarries the whole night long. 



247. " During the greatest part of the rainy season, the land- 

 breeze in the Java Sea can not be depended upon. This is read- 

 ily explained according to the theory which ascribes the origin of 

 the sea and land breezes to the heating of the soil by day, and the 

 cooling by means of radiation by night ; for, during the rainy sea- 

 son, the clouds extend over land and sea, interrupting the sun's 

 rays by day, and the radiation of heat by night, thus preventing 

 the variations of temperature ; and from these variations, according 



