TROPICAL CLIMATE 5 



Singapore is 94 inches, for Bangkok 67 inches, for Formosa 43 

 inches, for Manila 75 inches, for Vera Cruz 68 inches, for 

 Habana 52 inches, for Honolulu 28 inches, for Burma 99 

 inches, and for Bengal 188 inches. The Kamerun district has 

 a rainfall of about 350 inches a year. Cherrapongee in Assam 

 has an average annual rainfall of 458 inches and in one year 

 the annual precipitation reached the enormous total of 905 

 inches. 



Within the trade-wind belt- on small islands like those which 

 constitute the Hawaiian group, the climate of the lee and 

 windward side of the islands is decidedly different. The 

 windward side receives a much heavier precipitation and is, on 

 the whole, cooler than the lee side. The variation in rainfall 

 on these small islands is a strictly local matter and the most 

 astonishing differences in vegetation in localities separated only 

 a few miles occur as the result of this extreme variation in 

 rainfall. For example, at one of the substations of the U. S. 

 Experiment Station on the Island of Hawaii, a rainfall of 360 

 inches was recorded for one year, while at a point 28 miles 

 away the annual rainfall for the same year was 6 inches. It 

 is possible, therefore, in the space of an hour's ride to pass 

 from a desert covered with cacti and other drought-resistant 

 plants into a dense tropical jungle reeking with moisture. 



In all tropical countries the clearing of forests makes the 

 climate decidedly drier and warmer. The effects of the 

 removal of forests in tropical countries are in various ways far 

 more conspicuous than in northern climates. Stock grazing 

 in forests on account of the destruction of undergrowth and 

 young trees may change a given tract of country from a wet 

 jungle to an almost desert condition. This change may be 

 followed by more disastrous wind erosion than is perhaps ever 

 witnessed in northern climates. The islands of Kahoolawe 

 and Lanai, particularly the former, perhaps illustrate the fear- 

 ful effects of wind erosion to the best advantage. These 

 islands were formerly well covered with native forest growth. 



