The climate of Ceylon, from its physical configuration and insular detachment, contrasts favourably with that of the great Indian peninsula.  Owing to the moderate dimensions of the island, the elevation of its mountains, the very short space during which the sun is passing over it[1] in his regression from or approach to the solstices, and its surrounding seas being nearly uniform in temperature, it is exempt from the extremes of heating and cooling to which the neighbouring continent of India is exposed.  From the same causes it is subjected more uniformly to the genial influences of the trade winds that blow over the Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal.

[Footnote 1:  In his approach to the northern solstice, the sun, having passed the equator on the 21st of March, reaches the south of Ceylon about the 5th of April, and ten days later is vertical over Point Pedro, the northern extremity of the island.  On his return he is again over Point Pedro about the 27th of August, and passes southward over Dondera Head about the 7th of September.]

The island is seldom visited by hurricanes[1], or swept by typhoons, and the breeze, unlike the hot and arid winds of Coromandel and the Dekkan, is always more or less refreshing.  The range of the thermometer exhibits no violent changes, and never indicates a temperature insupportably high.  The mean on an annual average scarcely exceeds 80 deg. at Colombo, though in exceptional years it has risen to 86 deg.  But at no period of the day are dangerous results to be apprehended from exposure to the sun; and except during parts of the months of March, and April, there is no season when moderate exercise is not practicable and agreeable.  For half the year, from October to May, the prevailing winds are from the north-east, and during the remaining months the south-west monsoon blows steadily from the great Indian Ocean.  The former, affected by the wintry chills of the vast tracts of land which it traverses before crossing the Bay of Bengal, is subject to many local variations and intervals of calm.  But the latter, after the first violence of its outset is abated, becomes nearly uniform throughout the period of its prevalence, and presents the character of an on-shore breeze extending over a prodigious expanse of sea and land, and exerting a powerful influence along the regions of southern Asia.

[Footnote 1:  The exception to the exemption of Ceylon from hurricanes is the occasional occurrence of a cyclone extending its circle till the verge has sometimes touched Batticaloa, on the south-eastern extremity of the island, causing damage to vegetation and buildings.  Such an event is, however, exceedingly rare.  On the 7th of January, 1805, H.M.S.  “Sheerness” and two others were driven on shore in a hurricane at Trincomalie.]