affected by it stretches from Point-de-Galle, as far north as Putlam,
and eastward till it includes the greater portion of the ancient Kandyan
kingdom. But the rains do not reach the opposite side of the island;
whilst the west coast is deluged, the east is sometimes exhausted with
dryness; and it not unfrequently happens that different aspects of the
same mountain present at the same moment the opposite extremes of
drought and moisture.[1]

[Footnote 1: ADMIRAL FITZROY has described, in his _Narrative of the
Voyages of the Adventure and Beagle_, the striking degree in which this
simultaneous dissimilarity of climate is exhibited on opposite sides of
the Galapagos Islands; one aspect exposed to the south being covered
with verdure and freshened with moisture, whilst all others are barren
and parched.--Vol. ii. p. 502-3. The same state of things exists in the
east and west sides of the Peruvian Andes, and in the mountains of
Patagonia. And no more remarkable example of it exists than in the
island of Socotra, east of the Straits of Bab el Mandeb, the west coast
of which, during the north-east monsoon, is destitute of rain and
verdure, whilst the eastern side is enriched by streams and covered by
luxuriant pasturage.--_Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng._ vol. iv. p. 141.]

[Illustration: DIAGRAM EXHIBITING THE COMPARATIVE FALL OF RAIN ON THE
SEABORDE OF THE DEEKAN, AND AT COLOMBO, IN THE WESTERN PROVINCE OF
CEYLON.

One maximum at the spring change of the monsoon anticipating a little
that on the West coast of India; another at the autumnal change
corresponding more exactly with that of the East coast. The entire fall
through the year more equably distributed at Columbo.]

On the east coast, on the other hand, the fall, during the north-east
monsoon, is very similar in degree to that on the coast of Coromandel,
as the mountains are lower and more remote from the sea, the clouds are
carried farther inland and it rains simultaneously on both sides of the
island, though much less on the west than during the other monsoon.

_The climate of Galle_, as already stated, resembles in its general
characteristics that of Colombo, but, being further to the south, and
more equally exposed to the influence of both the monsoons, the
temperature is not quite so high; and, during the cold season, it falls
some degrees lower, especially in the evening and early morning.[1]

[Footnote 1: At Point-de-Galle, in 1854, the number of rainy days was