tions it is traveling around the sun as well.

CHAPTER XI.

WIND--CONTINUED.

In our last chapter we discussed the winds that prevail in the regions
of the tropics called trade winds, because they follow a direct course
through the year, with the exceptions noted in regard to their shifting
to the north or south with the changing seasons; we also described the
phenomena of land and sea breezes, which during certain seasons of the
year reverse their direction twice daily. We will now describe another
kind of wind, called monsoons, that prevail in India.

India lies directly north of the great Indian Ocean, and the lower part
of it comes within the tropical belt lying south of the Tropic of
Cancer. During the summer season here the earth stores more heat during
the day than it radiates or loses during the night. This causes the wind
to blow in a northerly direction from the sea both day and night for six
months each year, from April to October. During these months the land is
continually heated day and night to a higher temperature than the water
in the ocean south of it. The winds are probably not so severe during
the night as through the day, as the difference between the temperature
of the land and the water will not be so great during the night; and
difference of temperature between two points usually means a
proportional difference in the velocity of the wind. There is a time in
the fall and spring, while there is a struggle between the temperature
of the land and water for supremacy, when the winds are variable,
attended with local storms somewhat as we have them in the temperate
zone. But after the sun has moved south to a sufficient extent the land
of India loses more heat at night than is stored up in the day; hence
the conditions during the winter months are reversed, the water is
constantly warmer than the land, and there is a constant wind blowing
from the land to the ocean, which continues until April, when after a
season of local storms the conditions are established in the opposite
direction. These winds are called "monsoons."

The word monsoon is probably derived from an Arabic word meaning
"seasons." It is a peculiarity of this monsoon that in summer it blows
in a northeasterly direction from the sea and in the winter in a
southwesterly direction from the land. This divergence from a direct
north and south is caused by the rotation of the earth and the
explanation is the same as that we have