5B General GeograpTitcal Description 
island is not altogetlier freed from the dreadful storms which so 
terribly ravage the tropical climates. During its own periodical 
season', which happens in March and April, the rain pours 
down in torrents, and tlie thunder and lightning are awful to a 
degree almost inconceivable to an European. 
From the situation of this island, so near the Equator, the 
days and nights are necessarily always of nearly equal length ; 
the variation during the two seasons not exceeding fifteen mi- 
nutes. The seasons are more regulated by the monsoons than 
the course of the sim ; for although the island lies to the north 
of the line, the coolest season is durino' the summer solstice, 
while the western monsoon prevails. Their spring commences 
ill October, and the hottest season is from January to the 
beginning of April. The heat, during the day, is nearly the 
same throughout the wliole year; in the rainy season, how- 
ever, the nights are much cooler, from the dampness of the 
earth, and the prevalence of winds during the monsoons. The 
climate, upon the whole, is much more temperate than on the 
continent of India. For though Ceylon lies so near the Equa- 
tor, the heat is by no means so oppressive as I have felt it on 
many parts of the Coromandel coast in a more northerly lati- 
tude. This is owing to the constant sea-breezes by which it 
is fanned, without being subject to the hot and suffocating 
land-winds, wliicli so frequently annoy the continent. For this 
reason, although the perpendicular beams of the sun must of 
course be intensely hot, the shade and the houses always afford 
a tolerably cool retreat. 
This temperate climate, however, is chiefly confined to the 
coast, where the sea-breezes have roon> to circulate. In the 
interior of tlie country, owing to the thick and close wood 
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