Rain is rare, and when it occurs it falls in dashes, succeeded by damp and sultry calms.

The wind is unsteady and shifts from north-east to north-west, sometimes failing entirely between noon and twilight.

The quantity of rain is less than in January, and the difference of temperature between day and night is frequently as great as 15 deg.

or 20 deg.[1] [Footnote 1: Dr.MACVICAR, in a paper in the _Ceylon Miscellany_, July, 1843, recorded the results of some experiments, made near Colombo, as to the daily variation of temperature and Its effects on cultivation, from which it appeared that a register thermometer, exposed on a tuft of grass in the cinnamon garden in a clear night and under the open sky, on the 2nd of January, 1841, showed in the morning that it had been so low as 52 deg., and when laid on the ground in the place in the sunshine on the following day, it rose to upwards of 140 deg.

Fahr.] [Sidenote: Wind N.E.to N.W.
Temperature, 24 hours: Mean greatest 87.7 deg.
Mean least 73.1 deg.
Rain (inches) 2.1] _March_ .-- In March the heat continues to increase, the earth receiving more warmth than it radiates or parts with by evaporation.