282 
COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL 
theory. The river draining it debouches at Menado, 
making a descent of many hundreds of feet in its short 
course, and forming a waterfall of great beauty, the 
upper plunge of which is about 100 feet in height. 
4. Climate. 
The central position of Celebes, its shape, and its 
physical characteristics have combined to render it the 
healthiest of all the large islands of Malaysia. The 
violence of the W. monsoon and the abundance of its 
rains are mitigated by Sumatra and Borneo, while in like 
manner the parching easterly winds which from April 
to October blow over the Sunda chain as far as the 
middle of Java, drying up the streams and causing the 
trees to shed their leaves, are less felt, and materially 
affect only the southern and south-eastern peninsulas. 
The shape of the island is such as to admit health-giving 
sea-breezes almost to its entire area, while the absence of 
the low-lying and frequently - inundated plains which 
form so large a portion of Sumatra and Borneo renders 
malaria far less common than in those countries. Not 
that paludal fevers and dysentery are unknown: the 
great infant mortality afflicting the Minahasa population 
is no doubt indirectly due to the former of these two 
maladies. But, on the whole, tropical disorders are far 
less frequent and severe here than in most other parts of 
the archipelago. 
Owing to the influence of the S.E. monsoon, the 
climate of the Makassar district differs from that of 
Minahasa, being divided into a distinct wet and dry 
season, while the latter region, lying close to the equator, 
has a more equably distributed rainfall, and though 
occasionally subject to drought, is perennially verdant. 
