206 Mr. R. Swinhoe on Formosan Ornithology. 
coast is undulating and mountainous; but on the east, from 
lat 25° as far as Sawo Harbour, you have a large plain, with a 
few small rivers. South of Sawo the coast is very lofty and 
precipitous, with occasionally a sandy valley opening out into 
the sea. There are no harbours on this dangerous side, and 
apparently no shore. Up this entire length of east coast we 
have the Pacific warm or gulf-stream, called by the Japanese 
the Kuro-siwo , which, passing the north-east corner of our 
coast, takes a turn, and warming the northern shores of Japan, 
spreads itself out to temper the Californian and the western 
coast of America. To this ever north-flowing warm stream we 
owe the six months* almost incessant rain that prevails during the 
winter at Formosa. Whenever the N.E. monsoon blows strong 
(and that is too frequently the case in winter), the warm vapours 
of this stream saturate the wind, and induce incessant precipita¬ 
tion on our land and about twelve miles to seaward. The rain¬ 
line does not extend much beyond this, and the monsoon passes to 
the Chinese coast as a dry, cool, bracing breeze. The tempera¬ 
ture in summer rarely rises above 100°, and in winter, on the 
sea-level, seldom falls below 40°. In autumn, every afternoon, 
masses of storm-clouds regularly every day roll northwards along 
the mountain-chain, accompanied with loud roars of thunder, 
fearful flashes of lightning, and great sultriness of atmosphere in 
the plains, on which the clouds at that season do not often burst. 
The coast of Formosa is too well known for its stormy character, 
for every typhoon or gale that visits the Chinese coast gives us 
first the benefit of its violence. During my short stay at the 
capital, I experienced two severe typhoons and several heavy 
gales. Between Tamsuy and Kelung are the great coal and 
sulphur mines for which Formosa is justly celebrated, and on 
several of our hills there are indications of extinct craters; but 
there is no active volcano, to my knowledge, nearer than about 
the latitude of the capital. This we once witnessed smoking 
as we lay at anchor off the coast. Notwithstanding its great 
heat, Formosa does not bear an entirely tropical character. We 
have no cocoa-nuts and no parrots. This was remarked by an 
old Dutch traveller more than a century ago, and it still holds 
good. But we have areca-palms, rattan-canes, sugar-cane, tea, 
