112 
SKETCH OF THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY 
we are perfectly sheltered from the monsoons, the writer should have 
said that the operation of the monsoons is influenced by the extent 
and ramifications of the ocean around us, und by the chains of moun¬ 
tains in Sumatra,—the former increasing the humidity of the air, 
and the latter interrupting the wind, and combining with the general 
configuration of these countries, and the circumstance of a great arm 
of the sea being interposed between them, to substitute variable 
breezes and occasional sudden and severe squalls for a regular wind. 
He should have added, not that rain falls uniformly or more abun¬ 
dantly in the months of the European summer , but that the earliest 
months of the N. E. monsoon, or from October or November to J a- 
nuary, corresponding to the European winter, constitute a decided 
rainy season attended with a lower temperature than is experienced in 
other months. Although it is true that showers are frequent in this 
region during the months that constitute the dry season in India, it 
must not be supposed that they fall almost every three days, as some 
writers have said. Droughts are common of 8 to 14 days, and longer 
ones happen every few years. 
The tables for 6 years (1820 to 1825) furnished by Major Davis 
to the Asiatic Society, although of little use in determining the mean 
temperature of Singapore, owing to the noon heat being given as the 
maximum, serve to shew that, subject to great fluctuations, a certain 
seasonal distribution of heat through out the year is observed. There 
is a winter or cold season when the sun is in the southern hemis¬ 
phere in November, December and January, the minimum of heat 
falling sometimes in one and sometimes in another of these months. 
During the rapid passage northward of the sun across the equator, 
and the adjacent parallels, including that of Singapore, in the months 
of February, March and April, the temperature increases, some¬ 
times rising at once to summer heat. When the sun is in the tro¬ 
pic of Cancer, and during his slow progress near it in the months 
of May, June and July, the summer occurs. In one or other of 
these months the maximum of heat usually falls. During the suc¬ 
ceeding three months, August, September and October, when the 
sun recrosses the equator and the proximate parallels, the tempera- 
