363 



perature of wliich is, of course, much influenced 

 by the weather. In a clear, sun-shiiiy, day it 

 may be taken as hij^U as 85\ but in cloudy, or 

 blowing, weather, it falls to 80*, 76% and even to 

 74**. This lasts steadily to G Pj^M- and occasixm* 

 ally to 8 p. M., when it is alin<Sl invariably and 

 suddenly checked by the cold easterly land wind, 

 which rushes down from the moun tarns, and un- 

 der whose influence the mercury rapidly falls 

 five or six degrees; thi:* sudden change of tem- 

 perature is extremely trying to delicate conslim- 

 tions. 



The regular hot winds of India are never felt 

 here, nor indeed in any part of the peninsula, the 

 narrowness of which, and the repeated showers 

 with which it is visited, being a counteracting 

 cause- The south wind, however, during the 

 hot, or dry season, parches up the vegetation, 

 and induces head achc!?; and feverish sensations. 



As it is more charged with vapor in the rainy 

 season, it is less injurious. 



1 he tropical winds, or N. E. and S. W. mon- 

 soons, blow sometimes eight or ten days together 

 with scarcely any intermission; these reduce 

 the temperature occai^ionally to 74*^. It some- 

 times happens, however, that the wind will shift 

 all round the compass within 24 hours. 



The dry season includes the months of De- 

 cember, January, February, and March, during 

 the last two months of which the grain is cut and 

 housed, and the paddy fields and swamps rapidly 

 dry up. A drought occurs generally every seven 

 or eight years, and is generally aceonipanted by 

 a murrain amongst the cattle, and an epidemic 



