The electricity of the air stimulates the vegetation of the trees; and scarce a week will elapse till the plants are covered with the larvae of butterflies, the forest murmuring with the hum of insects, and the air harmonious with the voice of birds.
The extent to which the temperature is reduced, after the first burst of the monsoon, is not to be appreciated by the indications of the thermometer alone, but is rendered still more sensible by the altered density of the air, the drier state of which is favourable to evaporation, whilst the increase of its movement bringing it more rapidly in contact with the human body, heat is more readily carried off, and the coolness of the surface proportionally increased.

It occasionally happens during the month of June that the westerly wind acquires considerable strength, sometimes amounting to a moderate gale.
The fishermen, at this period, seldom put to sea: their canoes are drawn far up in lines upon the shore, and vessels riding in the roads of Colombo are often driven from their anchorage and stranded on the beach.
[Sidenote: Wind S.W.
Temperature, 24 hours: Mean greatest 84.8 deg Mean least 74.9 deg Rain (inches) 3.4] _July_ resembles, to a great extent, the month which precedes it, except that, in all particulars the season is more moderate, showers are less frequent, there is less wind, and less absolute heat.
[Sidenote: Wind S.W.
Temperature, 24 hours: Mean greatest 84.9 deg.
Mean least 74.7 deg.
Rain (inches) 2.8] _August_ .-- In August the weather is charming, notwithstanding withstanding a slight increase of heat, owing to diminished evaporation; and the sun being now on its return to the equator, its power is felt in greater force on full exposure to its influence.
[Sidenote: Wind S.W.
Temperature, 24 hours: Mean greatest 84.9 deg Mean least 74.8 deg Rain (inches) 5.2] _September_ .-- The same atmospheric condition continues throughout September, but towards its close the sea-breeze becomes unsteady and clouds begin to collect, symptomatic of the approaching change to the north-east monsoon.

The nights are always clear and delightfully cool.
Rain is sometimes abundant.
[Sidenote: Wind S.W.and N.E.
Temperature, 24 hours: Mean greatest 85.1 deg Mean least 73.3 deg Rain (inches) 11.2] _October_ is more unsettled, the wind veering towards the north, with pretty frequent rain; and as the sun is now far to the southward, the heat continues to decline.
[Sidenote: Wind N.E.
Temperature, 24 hours: Mean greatest 86.3 deg Mean least 71.5 deg Rain (inches) 10.7] _November_ sees the close of the south-west monsoon and the arrival of the north-eastern.

In the early part of the month the wind visits nearly every point of the compass, but shows a marked predilection for the north, generally veering from N.E.at night and early morning, to N.W.
at noon; calms are frequent and precede gentle showers, and clouds form round the lower range of hills.

By degrees as the sun advances in its southern declination, and warms the lower half of the great African continent, the current of heated air ascending from the equatorial belt leaves a comparative vacuum, towards which the less rarefied atmospheric fluid is drawn down from the regions north, of the tropic, bringing with it the cold and dry winds from the Himalayan Alps, and the lofty ranges of Assam.