are least marked during this period owing to the
uninterrupted rainfall and the clouded atmosphere.

Daily variations of the thermometer.--The coolest portion of the day
is from 6 to 7 a.m.; the heat gradually increases, reaches its maximum
about 2 or 3 p.m., and then again gradually decreases. During some
hours of the night the temperature remains unchanged, but towards
morning it falls rapidly.

[Winds.] The direction of the wind is very regular at all seasons
of the year, even when local causes make it vary a little. In the
course of a twelvemonth the wind goes around the whole compass. In
January and February north winds prevail; in March and April they blow
from the south-east; and in May, June, July, August, and September,
from the south-west. In the beginning of October they vary between
south-east and south-west, and settle down towards the close of the
month in the north-east, in which quarter they remain tolerably fixed
during the two following months. The two changes of monsoon always
take place in April and May, and in October. As a rule, the direction
of both monsoons preserves its equilibrium; but in Manila, which is
protected towards the north by a high range of hills, the north-east
monsoon is often diverted to the south-east and north-west. The same
cause gives greater force to the south-west wind.

[Sunshine and rain.] The sky is generally partially clouded; entirely
sunny days are of rare occurrence, in fact, they only occur from
January to April during the north-east monsoons. Number of rainy days
in the year, 168. The most continuous and heaviest rain falls from
June till the end of October. During this period the rain comes down
in torrents; in September alone the rainfall amounted to 1.5 meters,
nearly as much as falls in Berlin in the course of the whole year,
3,072.8 millimeters of rain fell in the twelve month; but this is
rather more than the average.

The evaporation only amounted to 2,307.3 millimeters; in ordinary
years it is generally about equal to the downfall, taking the early
averages, not those of single months.

The average daily evaporation was about 6.3 millimeters.

[Storms.] The changes of monsoons are often accompanied with tremendous
storms; during one of these, which occurred in September, the velocity
of the wind was as much as thirty-seven or thirty-eight meters per
second. An official report of the English vice-consul mentions a
typhoon which visited the Islands on