WIND (continued)

12th. Between the island of Madagascar and the coast of Africa, and thence northward as far as the equator, there is a tract, wherein from April to October there is a constant fresh S. S. W. wind; which to the northward changes into the W. S. W. wind, blowing at times in the Arabian sea.

13th. To the eastward of Sumatra and Malacca on the north of the equator, and along the coasts of Cambodia and China, quite through the Philippines as far as Japan, the Monsoons blow northerly and southerly; the nothern one setting in about October or November, and the southern about May: These winds are not quite so certain as those in the Arabian seas.

14th. Between Sumatra and Java to the west, and New Guinea to the east, the same northerly and southerly winds are observed; but the first half year Monsoon inclines to the N. W. and the latter to the S. E. These winds begin a month or six weeks after those in the Chinese seas set in, and are quite as variable.

15th. These contrary winds do not shift from one point to its opposite all at once; and in some places the time of the change is attended with calms, in others by variable winds: and it often happens on the shores of Coromandel and China, towards the end of the Monsoons, that there are most violent storms, greatly resembling the hurricanes in the West Indies; wherein the wind is so exceffively strong, that hardly any thing can resist its force.

All navigation in the Indian ocean must necessarily be regulated by these winds; for if the mariners should delay their voyages till the contrary Monsoon begins, they must either sail back, or go into harbour, and wait for the return of the trade-wind.

The relative force of the wind upon a ship's sails, and the epithets by which it is distinguished, as fair, large, &c. according to the angle which it makes with her course, are explained in the article SAILING.

Reference Works