=========+==============+=============+============= Month | Fiji, | New | New | Qara Valu | Hebrides, | Caledonia, | | Tongatabu | Noumea +------+-------+-----+-------+-----+------- | Ins. | ~Mm.~ | Ins.| ~Mm.~ | Ins.| ~Mm.~ ---------+------+-------+-----+-------+-----+------- January | 22·48| ~571~| 9·18| ~233~| 3·98| ~101~ February | 17·48| ~450~| 6·83| ~173~| 4·38| ~110~ March | 36·97| ~932~| 6·37| ~162~| 4·58| ~116~ April | 31·26| ~794~|10·35| ~263~| 5·20| ~132~ May | 10·95| ~276~| 8·19| ~208~| 5·18| ~130~ June | 24·10| ~612~| 8·12| ~206~| 4·18| ~106~ July | 12·76| ~324~| 1·66| ~42~| 3·32| ~84~ August | 32·95| ~835~| 3·68| ~93~| 2·38| ~60~ September| 14·65| ~372~| 7·08| ~180~| 2·83| ~72~ October | 19·28| ~490~| 7·18| ~182~| 2·56| ~65~ November | 7·14| ~181~| 3·58| ~91~| 3·03| ~77~ December | 17·48| ~444~| 4·45| ~113~| 3·23| ~82~ ---------+------+-------+-----+-------+-----+------- Year |247·85|~6,281~|76·62|~1,946~|44·68|~1,135~ =========+======+=======+=====+=======+=====+======= Qara Valu has been selected as having the heaviest rainfall recorded in this part of the world, and it must not be imagined that such a chronic downpour is in any way typical of the Fiji Islands, most of which have a comparatively moderate rainfall; Bua with 98·35 ins. (2,497 mm.), and Lesuha with 97·15 ins. (2,465 mm.), being fairer examples; but there is the same tendency to a comparatively even distribution throughout the year. These islands are, it is almost needless to remark, occasionally visited by terrible tornadoes, but are normally continuously under the influence of the trade winds, which here do not suffer from interruption, during the summer solstice, from disturbance due to the area of low pressure that originates from the superheating of land and water over Australia and the islands and confined seas that intervene between it and the Asiatic continent. _THE AMERICAN CONTINENT._--Like the islands of the Pacific, climatic data in America are characterised by lower levels than are met with in the great land masses of Europe, Asia, and Africa. As a result of this we find that, although we know that New York can produce a most discreditable array of cases of sunstroke in the height of summer, it is only the extreme southern portion of the United States that really merits the title to belong to the category of hot climates. There are doubtless to be met with fiercely hot places in Mexico, and malarious foci in the isthmus of Darien, which may rival anything to be met with in the old world, but speaking generally, climates are generally milder than those of corresponding places on this side of the “herring pond.”