Page:Physical Geography of the Sea and its Meteorology.djvu/405

Rh faces under the clouded skies, impatiently trim the sails to the changing winds. However, the atmosphere generally becomes clear, and, contrary to expectation, the north-east wind comes from a clear sky; about the coming of the monsoon it is northerly. Now the clouds are again packed together; the wind dies away, but it will soon be waked up to come again from another point. Finally, the regular land and sea breezes gradually replace rain, and tempests, calms, and gentle gales. The rain holds up during the day, and in the Java Sea we have the east monsoon. It is then May. Farther to the south than the Java Sea the east monsoon commences in April. This monsoon prevails till September or October, when it turns to become the west monsoon. It has seemed to me that the east monsoon does not blow the same in every month, that its direction becomes more southerly, and its power greater after it has prevailed for some time.

707. Currents.—"It is sufficiently important to fix the attention, seeing that these circumstances have great influence upon the winds in the many straits of the Archipelago, in which strong currents run most of the time. Especially in the straits to the east of Java these currents are very strong. I have been unable to stem the current with eight-mile speed. However, they do not always flow equally strong, nor always in the same direction. They are probably the strongest when the tidal current and the equatorial current meet together. It is said that the currents in the straits during the east monsoon run eighteen hours to the north and six hours to the south, and the reverse during the west