254 MR. THOMAS HOPKINS ON THE INFLUENCE 



to the island of Java ; and therefore, instead of being left 

 behind by the globe, it_, as in the cases of other winds, 

 moves eastward at a quicker rate than the globe does. 

 And here, as in the western monsoon of the Pacific Ocean, 

 it is only at a certain season that this wind blows towards 

 the east, although the surface of the globe revolves with 

 equal velocity at all times. Thus, in the eastern portion 

 of the Indian Ocean, from about the northern tropic to 

 the equator, one wind is found blowing to the east, while 

 another is found on the other side of the equator blowing 

 in the same direction. So much are facts in this part of the 

 world at variance with the assumptions which have been 

 made by ingenious inquirers to sustain an erroneous theory. 



There is another part which deserves notice, as bearing 

 on the subject under consideration. The islands of the 

 great Indian archipelago have the broad Pacific Ocean to 

 the east on one side, and the open Indian Ocean on the 

 other to the west ; and near to and on each side of the 

 equator, winds blow in opposite directions towards these 

 islands. Thus, while winds from the east blow to them 

 from the Pacific, other winds, as we have seen, blow from 

 the west over the Indian Ocean. The winds change with 

 the arrival and departure of the rainy season on the one or 

 on the other side of the difierent parts of the great archi- 

 pelago. And it is stated to be a well-known fact that 

 wind blows through Torres Straits, within io° of the equa- 

 tor, during one half of the year from the east and during 

 the other half from the west. As statements to this efiect 

 are to be found in many books, it is rather surprising that 

 meteorologists should continue to repeat the hypotheses 

 that are so much at variance with them. 



But it has been found in other departments of natural 

 operation, as well as in this, that first appearances have 

 given birth to erroneous views, which, in due time, have 

 been worked into a fallacious hypothesis. This took place 



