At sea, within the region of the trade-winds, it seldom rains, but in the narrow zone between them known as the _Variables_, in both the great oceans, it rains almost continually, attended by violent thunder and lightning. Throughout the whole region where the monsoons prevail, it is not the sun, directly, but the winds, that regulate the periodical rains. That region extends from the eastern coasts of Africa and Madagascar across the Indian Ocean to the northern districts of Australia, and from the tropic of Capricorn to the face of the Himalaya, the interior of China, and even to Corea, inclusive. In these countries the western coasts are watered during the south-west monsoon, which prevails from April to October; and the eastern coasts are watered during the north-east monsoon, which blows from October to April. For example, the south-west wind condenses the vapour on the summit of the Ghauts, and violent rains fall daily on the coast of Malabar, while on the Coromandel coast the sky is serene. Exactly the contrary takes place during the north-east monsoon; it rains on the coast of Coromandel, while there is fair weather on the Malabar coast, and the table-land of the Deccan partakes of both. In the southern hemisphere the rainy season corresponds with the south-west monsoon, and the dry with the south-eastern. Between the tropics it rains rarely during the night, and for months together not a drop falls; while in the temperate zone it often rains in the night, and rain falls at all seasons, though more abundantly in some than in others. It seldom rains in summer throughout the north of Africa, Madeira, the southern parts of Spain and Portugal, Sicily, southern Italy, all Greece, and the north-western part of Asia; but it falls copiously during the other seasons, especially in winter; consequently, that extensive region is called the province of winter rains. The province of autumnal rains includes all Europe south of the Carpathians, western France, the delta of the Rhine, northern and western Scandinavia, and the British isles; throughout these countries more rain falls in autumn than in the other three seasons. The province of summer rains comprises the eastern parts of France, the Netherlands (with the exception of the delta of the Rhine), the north of Switzerland, all Germany north of the Alps, the Carpathian mountains, Denmark, southern Scandinavia, all central Europe, and the countries beyond the Ural Mountains to the interior of Siberia, where showers are very rare in winter. In some places it rains almost perpetually, as in the island of Sitka, on the north-eastern coast of North America, where the year has sometimes passed with only 40 days of fair weather.