time and localities,
and in those districts where the fall is most considerable, the number
of rainless days is the greatest.[1] An idea may be formed of the deluge
that descends in Colombo during the change of the monsoon, from the fact
that out of 72.4 inches, the annual average there, no less than 20.7
inches fall in April and May, and 21.9 in October and November, a
quantity one-third greater than the total rain in England throughout an
entire year.

[Footnote 1: The average number of days on which rain fell at Colombo in
the years 1832, 1833, 1834, and 1835, was as follows:--

Days.
In January 3
February 4
March 6
April 11
May 13
June 13
July 8
August 10
September 14
October 17
November 11
December 8
---
Total 118]

In one important particular the phenomenon, of the Dekkan affords an
analogy for that which presents itself in Ceylon. During the south-west
monsoon the clouds are driven against the lofty chain of mountains that
overhang the western shore of the peninsula, and their condensed vapour
descends there in copious showers. The winds, thus early robbed of their
moisture, carry but little rain to the plains of the interior, and
whilst Malabar is saturated by daily showers, the sky of Coromandel is
clear and serene. In the north-east monsoon a condition the very
opposite exists; the wind that then prevails is much drier, and the
hills which it encounters being of lower altitude, the rains are carried
further towards the interior, and whilst the weather is unsettled and
stormy on the eastern shore, the western is comparatively exempt, and
enjoys a calm and cloudless sky.[1]

[Footnote 1: The mean of rain is, on the western side of the Dekkan, 80
inches, and on the eastern, 52.8.]

In like manner the west coast of Ceylon presents a contrast with the
east, both in the volume of rain in each of the respective monsoons, and
in the influence which the same monsoon exerts simultaneously on the one
side of the island and on the other. The greatest quantity of rain falls
on the south-western portion, in the month of May, when the wind from
the Indian Ocean is intercepted, and its moisture condensed by the lofty
mountain ranges, surrounding Adam's Peak. The region principally