[Seasons and weather.] As on the eastern coasts of Luzon, the north-east monsoon here exceeds that from the south-west in duration and force, the violence of the latter being arrested by the islands lying to the southwest, while the north-east winds break against the coasts of these easterly islands with their whole force, and the additional weight of the body of water which they bring with them from the open ocean.  In October winds fluctuating between north-west and north-east occur; but the prevalent ones are northerly.  In the middle of November the north-east is constant; and it blows, with but little intermission, from the north until April.  This is likewise the rainy season, December and January being the wettest, when it sometimes rains for fourteen days without interruption.  In Lauang, on the north coast, the rainy season lasts from October to the end of December.  From January to April it is dry; May, June, and July are rainy; and August and September, again, are dry; so that here there are two wet and two dry seasons in the year.  From October to January violent storms (baguios or typhoons) sometimes occur.  Beginning generally with a north wind, they pass to the north-west, accompanied by a little rain, then back to the north, and with increasing violence to the north-east and east, where they acquire their greatest power, and then moderate to the south.  Sometimes, however, they change rapidly from the east to the south, in which quarter they first acquire their greatest force.

[Winds and storms.] From the end of March to the middle of June inconstant easterly winds (N.E.E. and S.E.) prevail, with a very heavy sea on the east coast.  May is usually calm; but in May and June there are frequent thunderstorms, introducing the south-west monsoon, which though it extends through the months of July, August, and September, is not so constant as the north-east.  The last-named three months constitute the dry season, which, however, is often interrupted by thunderstorms.  Not a week, indeed, passes without rain; and in many years a storm arises every afternoon.  At this season of the year ships can reach the east coast; but during the north-east monsoon navigation there is impossible.  These general circumstances are subject to many local deviations, particularly on the south and west coasts, where the uniformity of the air currents is disturbed by the mountainous islands lying in front of them.  According to the Estado geografico of 1855, an extraordinarily high tide, called dolo, occurs every year at the change of the monsoon in September or October.  It rises sometimes sixty or seventy feet, and dashes itself with fearful violence against the south and east coasts, doing great damage, but not lasting for any length of time.  The climate of Samar and Leyte appears to be very healthy on the coasts; in fact, to be the best of all the islands of the archipelago.  Dysentery, diarrhoea, and fever occur less frequently than in Luzon, and Europeans also are less subject to their attacks than in that place.