THE WEST COAST OP AFEICA. 161 



bringing with it sometinaes rain, and sometimes a Hurricane. About the 

 end of March, and beginning of April, those heavy tempests, called by the 

 Portuguese Tornados, arise, accompanied with a deluge of rain, thunder, 

 and lightning; these continue to the end of May, and are announced by 

 the darkness of the sky in the S.E. 



During. the rainy season, that js, in May and July, little or no land- 

 winds are felt; but from the sea it blows from the S.W. and W.S.W., 

 making a very great swell, which continues even in August, although the 

 rains begin to cease in that month. 



The weather becomes fair in September, and the air clear, with gentle 

 South winds ; and this continues till January, the hottest days being in 

 December. 



(87.) Commander E. G. Bourke, E.N., F.M.S., remarks : The winds on 

 the African coasts are already so well known as to render much comment 

 unnecessary, the usual sea and land-breezes being, with few exceptions, 

 constant ; the latter, however, are nowhere very strong, and as a rule are 

 not felt before midnight, nor do they last later than 8 a.m. The sea-breeze 

 commences about 10 a.m., reaches its maximum strength at 4 p.m., and 

 then gradually falls light, but frequently, and especially in the Gulf of 

 Guinea, it maintains its full strength until it suddenly drops, and gives 

 place to the land-breeze. The sea-breeze blows from West to N.W. to the 

 North of Cape Palmas, to the South of that point it is from S.S.W. to 

 W.S.W. true. North of Cape Palmas the land-breeze comes from East to 

 E.N.E., from Cape Palmas to Fernando Po from the N.W., thence to Cape 

 Lopez (1° S.) from the East, and to the South of that cape it is from the 

 S.E. These breezes extend nowhere far from the shore, as at a distance 

 of 20 miles to seaward the constant S.W. Monsoon is but rarely disturbed, 

 and then only by Tornados and the Harmattan. 



The chief characteristic of the chmate of the Coast of Western Africa 

 is moisture, which is accompanied by a temperature by no means high for 

 the latitude. This averages 79° between the Equator and 10° N. ; from 

 the Equator to 10° S. it is from 4° to 6° lower. — Journal of the Meteoro- 

 logical Society, Vol. iv., 1878, pp. 25, 27. 



(88.) Bemarks by Baron Boussin. — Cape Bojador to the Isles de Los. — 

 On the whole extent of the African coast there are but two seasons, namely, 

 the rainy and dry seasons. The division of the two is connected with the 

 periods when the sun crosses from one Hemisphere to the other, and is 

 modified as he advances to, or recedes from, the Equator. 



The Bainy Season commences at each place on the coast to the Northward 

 of the Equator, at the time when the sun passes the zenith of that place 

 in his course to the Northward. It is, usually, during the month pre- 

 ceding this event that the change of weather takes place. It may there- 

 fore be calculated that, at the Isles de Los, the first point exposed to the 

 rainy season, and which lie in 9^° N., the first violent squalls do not occur 

 before the 10th or 15th of May. Their arrival seems to be affected by the 

 moon ; for they almost always commence, and are most violent, on the 

 iays of the new and full. 



N. A. 0. 22 



