1832.] 
WINDS, 
395 
southeast monsoons prevail at the different seasons. The south- 
east monsoon commences in the month of April, and continues 
till November, when it changes to the northwest. But between 
the monsoons, the winds and currents are light and variable. 
Throughout the whole extent of the Eastern Isles, as far as 
Timor and Solor, the northwest monsoon brings foul weather, ac- 
companied with violent wind and rain. The stormy weather 
continues all January, and until the middle of February ; but 
entirely ceases about the end of March. In April, the variable 
winds render the weather mild. In May, the southeast wind be- 
comes settled, and blows steadily during the months of June and 
July; and the weather continues fine until the end of September. 
In the month of October, the southeast monsoon dies away, and 
the wind again becomes variable until the northwest again sets in. 
Now, if we refer to the map, we shall find New-Holland, an 
immense tract of land to the southeast of the Sunda Islands and 
the Moluccas, situated partly within and partly without the tropics. 
When, therefore, the sun is nearest his highest declination north, 
which of course is the winter of the southern hemisphere, and 
rarefies the air over the continent of Asia, the current of air in the 
southern hemisphere, independently of the tradewind, will move 
from the southeast, to restore the equilibrium to the northwest. 
On the contrary, in the months of November, December, and 
January, while the sun is nearly vertical over a part of New-Hol- 
land, the current of air through the Sunda Islands and the Mo- 
luccas will come from the northwest, to fill up the vacuum made 
by the rarefaction, and thus cause an alternate monsoon of south- 
east and northwest.* 
1, It should be borne in mind by navigators in the eastern seas, 
that in the Gulf of Siam, on the coast of Cambodia, of Cochin 
China, and in the Gulf of Tonquin and China, the southwest 
monsoon commences on the coast in the month of April ; but out 
at sea in those parts, it does not change until a month later. It 
is for this reason, that on the north part of Borneo to the Islands 
of Paragoa and Luconia, it is seldom known to blow constantly 
before from the fifteenth to the twentieth of May. As the south- 
west monsoon contmues only about six months, and commences 
* Clapper on the Monsoons. 
