METEOROLOGY. 



151 



torial zone, is the extreme irregularity of its 

 phenomena. Here weather seems to be all in 

 confusion ; hardly two consequent years resemble 

 each other. In 1853-4, for instance, the seasons, 

 if they may so be called, were apparently in- 

 verted ; heavy showers fell during the dries, and a 

 drought occupied the place of the wet monsoon. 

 Sometimes the rains will begin with, this year 

 (1857) they ended with, a heavy burst. Now 

 April is a fine month, then the downfall will last 

 through June. 



I may also remark one great difference of 

 climate between the eastern and western coasts 

 of intertropical Africa. Whilst Zanzibar is super- 

 satured with moisture, Angola, on the same 

 parallel, is a comparatively dry, sandy, and sun- 

 burnt region. Kilwa, upon the eastern coast, and 

 in S. lat. 8° 57', is damp and steamy. S. Paulo de 

 Loanda, upon the opposite shore (S. lat. 8° 48'), 

 suffers from want of water. We find the same 

 contrast in the South American continent. The 

 middle Brazil is emphatically a land of rains, 

 whilst Peru and Chili require artificial irrigation 

 supplied by melted snow. Evidently the winds 

 charged with moisture, the 1S T . E. and S. E. 

 trades and their modifications, discharge them- 

 selves upon the windward sides of continents' 



