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equator, rain and sunshine are more or less distributed 
throughout the year. At the change of the monsoons 
the weather is often unsettled and tempestuous, with 
violent thunderstorms, which in the mountains are often 
destructive of life. Batavia experiences annually an 
average of over one hundred thunderstorms. That the 
permanent winds from the eastward prevail over the 
monsoons at the higher altitudes is made evident by the 
westerly direction taken by the smoke of the volcanoes, 
and the constancy of this current is shown by the 
erosion of the western side of the lips of the craters, 
as may be well seen in the case of Merapi. Land and 
sea breezes are experienced within fifteen miles of the 
northern and southern coasts, while in some parts of the 
east end, which exhibits a considerably greater aridity 
than the west, the south-east monsoon blows violently 
across the entire island. 
Although Java has not such a great rainfall as 
Sumatra, owing in a measure to its being protected by 
that island, it is nevertheless considerable, although 
naturally varying very much with the locality. At 
Batavia the mean annual rainfall is 75 inches, but at 
Buitenzorg, the hill-station of that city, it averages 
185 inches, or more than four times that recorded from 
the eastern end of the island. December, January, 
and February are the most rainy months, averaging in 
Batavia about 18 inches in each month, while in July 
and August the amount recorded is little over 2 
inches. The island, lying out of the track of typhoons, 
shows a very steady barometer, and during observations 
extending over some years *36 inch was recorded as its 
extreme range of variation. The variations of tem¬ 
perature are likewise very small upon the coast. The 
result of twelve years’ observations at the Government 
