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of Kowloon, 3,130 feet in height. North-west of this moun- tain the Colony's largest area of cultivable land stretches to the marshes on the eastern shore of Deep Bay. The eastern half of the New Territories mainland, mountainous and unpro- ductive, extends to the rocky and deeply indented coastline of Mirs Bay. Wherever cultivation is made possible by the presence of flat land and water, villages exist and crops are raised. Intricate terracing brings the maximum land under cultivation and the traditional methods of the Chinese farmers have changed as little in Hong Kong as they have in neigh- bouring China.
The New Territories include 75 adjacent islands few of which show any trace of the impact of western civilization and many of which are uninhabited. Productive land is even scarcer than on the mainland and the estimated island- popula- tion of 60,000 includes many fisherfolk living aboard their boats. The largest island is Lantau, a rugged and beautiful place lying west of the harbour. Lantau is more than twice the size of Hong Kong Island itself and its highest peak is over 3,000 feet; though the island is well watered the gradients are such that even the patient Chinese farmer has been able to secure only a few precarious footholds and there is little cultivation. Well-wooded ravines and scrub-covered spurs, where wild boar and barking deer are plentiful, slope steeply upwards to a bold and lonely skyline. The rest of the islands are much smaller, the smallest inhabited island being Ngai Ying Chau with an area of 81⁄2 acres and a population of three and sometimes five.
The climate is sub-tropical and is governed to a large extent by the monsoons, the winter being normally cool and dry and the summer hot and humid. The north-east monsoon sets in during October and persists until April. The early winter is the most pleasant time of the year, the weather being generally sunny and the atmosphere often exceedingly dry. Later in the winter cloud is more frequent, though rainfall remains very slight; in March and April long spells of dull overcast weather may occur. Warm southerly winds may temporarily displace the cool north-east monsoon during this period and under these conditions fog and very low cloud are common. From May until August, the prevailing wind is the south-west monsoon, a warm damp wind blowing from equa- torial regions. Winds are more variable in summer than in winter, for the south-west monsoon is frequently interrupted. The weather is persistently hot and humid, and is often cloudy and showery with frequent thunder-storms. The summer is the rainy season, three quarters of the annual rainfall falling between the months of May and September.
From June to October Hong Kong is most liable to be affected by typhoons, although they are sometimes experi- enced before and after this period. A typhoon whose centre passes over or near the Colony is accompanied by winds of
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