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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1907 Excerpt:...night in that region, the sun usually rises in a cloudless sky. As the morning advances and the heat grows more intense, the damp air rises more rapidly; then small clouds appear and grow steadily until rain falls from them. Showers occur practically every day, increasing in the afternoon. When the sun sets and the air rises less actively, the clouds melt away, the stars appear, and the night is as clear as before. Our hot, muggy summer days, with heavy thunder showers in the afternoon and evening, illustrate the weather that is repeated day after day in this belt of calms. Fig. 263. To illustrate the desert regions in the trade wind and horse latitude belts of Africa. Also to show the heavy rainfall in the belt of calms. Find the similar belts on Figures 251, 252, and 254. It is the heavy rain there that supplies the dampness necessary for the dense jungles of the tropical forest of the Amazon valley, Cen tral Africa, and the East r7VKD4"j Indies (Fig 250). Migration of Rain Belts.--The statement has been already made (p. 220) that the wind belts shift northward in summer and southward in winter. One of the most important effects of this change is upon the rainfall. In the torrid zone, for example, many places are within the belt of calms during the summer of their hemisphere, and are swept by the drying trades in their cooler months, thus dividing the year into wet and dry seasons. The part of northern Africa lying between the Sahara and the Sudan affords an instance of this (Figs. 255 and 256). Fia. 254. Showing the heavy rainfall on the east-facing coast of Australia where the trade winds blow. Notice also the arid interior and west coast. What is the condition in the belt of calms? What resemblance do you see to Figure 2521 Fig. 255. Winds and rai...