i. It
is said by Lieutenant Maury that the monsoons, "_obey the stronger
force_." But which is the stronger force? Cobi, not _wholly_ rainless,
lying north of 35 deg., under the zone of extra-tropical rains, with India and
the Ghauts, the Himmalaya Mountains, the table lands of Thibet, and the
Kuenlun Mountains between? or the deserts of India, Beloochistan, and
Arabia, _wholly rainless_, and _intensely hot, near by_, and in _open
view_. There can be but one answer to this question. Nothing in the way of
desert barrenness, or elevated temperature, unless it be those of Sahara,
can exceed the deserts about the head of the Arabian Sea and Persian Gulf.
Certainly those of Cobi can not compare with them; yet the trades blow
steadily over them, although more northerly there, as every where, near
their northern limits, especially on land. Says Hopkins, in his
atmospheric changes:

"If any one part of the broad expanse of the continent of Asia could
be heated so as to draw air from the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean
during the summer, it would be that part which lies between
Hindoostan and the Lake of Aral, including the region between the
Valley of the Oxus and Persia, and the land of this part, unlike
Hindoostan, is not screened from the sun by thick vapors. But what
says Burnes respecting the winds of this part? Why, that about the
latter end of June, though the thermometer was at 103 deg. in the day,
'In this country a steady wind generally blows from the north.' And
on the 23d of August, after having passed the Oxus--'The heat of the
sand rose to 150 deg., and that of the atmosphere exceeded 100 deg., but the
wind blew steadily, nor do I believe that it would be possible to
traverse this tract in summer if it ceased to blow. The steady manner
in which it comes from one direction is remarkable in this inland
country.' Again--'The air itself was not disturbed but by the usual
north wind that blows steadily in this desert.' And he has many other
similar passages."

Here there is a vast tract of country south of 35 deg. which has a temperature
often of 103 deg., and does not reverse the trade and create a monsoon. How
utterly unphilosophical, then, to attribute the monsoons to Cobi because
they "obey the stronger force!" or to attribute them to it at all.

4th. The monsoons can not be _traced from_ the Malabar coast _to Cobi_.
They do not