CLIMATE-METAPHORICAL NAMES.

401

prevails, when the monsoon changes to the northeast. But hurricanes and typhoons are almost unknown in Siam. The rainy season commences with the breaking-up of the north-east monsoon; but rains are not abundant until July, August, and September. The dry season begins in November, and the fall of rain is rare until the middle of April. Though the thermometer scarcely ever falls below 59°, the inhabitants appear to suffer much from the cold season. The highest range of the thermometer observed has been 97° in the shade: the mean annual average is 82 57°; the mean annual range, 13'40°. The general character of the climate is favourable, for a tropical country. Dr. Bradley says, of one thousand four hundred and fifty medical cases which came under his treatment, there were only eighteen of fever, and those cases generally of a mild, intermittent character. Hepatitis, so common in Burmah and British India, is rare, and phthisis almost unknown. People often reach extreme old age, and it is not an unusual thing to meet with persons above a century old.*

Bangkok, like many Oriental cities, has its poetical or metaphorical names, such as Krung thepa maha nakhon si ajutthaja maha dilok raxathani, &c.; the great, royal, angelic city, the beautiful, the uncaptured,―Juthia, the capital par excellence,—which was the name of the ancient seat of the Court.

The town is about twenty miles from the sea; but as there is a considerable bend on the river, the distance by water exceeds thirty miles. There is,

however, a shorter cut through a straight and narrow branch, which has an outlet at Paklat, by which the distance is diminished many miles; and this shorter course is ordinarily taken by boats of light draught, or at the time of high water. The limits of the city are marked by a semicircle of the Meinam on the western side, and by a canal on the eastern, whose two extremities joining the river make the city almost circular. There is an inner island, formed by another canal, also joining the Meinam. There are two other canals, viz., one from north to south, and another from east to west, crossing the city at right lines, besides auxiliary canals on both sides the river. The highways of Bangkok are not streets or roads, but the river and the canals. Boats are the universal means of conveyance and communication. Except about the palaces of the Kings, horses or carriages are rarely seen, and the sedan of the Chinese appears unknown in Siam: but a boat is a necessary part of every person's household; to its dexterous management every child is trained-women and men are equally accustomed to the use of the oar, the paddle, and the rudder. From the most miserable skiff which seems scarcely large enough to hold a dog, up to the magnificently-adorned barges which are honoured with the presence of royalty-from the shabbiest canoe, hewn out of the small trunk of a tree from the jungle, up to the roofed and curtained, the carved and gilded barks of the nobles-every rank and condition has its boats plying in endless activity, night and day, on the surface of the Meinam waters.