Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 1 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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The Inhabitants Of Caracas Complain Of
Having Several Seasons In One And The Same Day; And Of The Rapid
Change From One Season To Another.
In the month of January, for
instance, a night, of which the mean temperature is 16 degrees, is
sometimes followed by a day when the thermometer during eight
successive hours keeps above 22 degrees in the shade.
In the same
day, we may find the temperature of 24 and 18 degrees. These
variations are extremely common in our temperate climates of
Europe, but in the torrid zone, Europeans themselves are so
accustomed to the uniform action of exterior stimulus, that they
suffer from a change of temperature of 6 degrees. At Cumana, and
everywhere in the plains, the temperature from eleven in the
morning to eleven at night changes only 2 or 3 degrees. Moreover,
these variations act on the human frame at Caracas more violently
than might be supposed from the mere indications of the
thermometer. In this narrow valley the atmosphere is in some sort
balanced between two winds, one blowing from the west, or the
seaside, the other from the east, or the inland country. The first
is known by the name of the wind of Catia, because it blows from
Catia westward of Cabo Blanco through the ravine of Tipe. It is,
however, only a westerly wind in appearance, and it is oftener the
breeze of the east and north-east, which, rushing with extreme
impetuosity, engulfs itself in the Quebrada de Tipe. Rebounding
from the high mountains of Aguas Negras, this wind finds its way
back to Caracas, in the direction of the hospital of the Capuchins
and the Rio Caraguata. It is loaded with vapours, which it deposits
as its temperature decreases, and consequently the summit of the
Silla is enveloped in clouds, when the catia blows in the valley.
This wind is dreaded by the inhabitants of Caracas; it causes
headache in persons whose nervous system is irritable. In order to
shun its effects, people sometimes shut themselves up in their
houses, as they do in Italy when the sirocco is blowing. I thought
I perceived, during my stay at Caracas, that the wind of Catia was
purer (a little richer in oxygen) than the wind of Petare. I even
imagined that its purity might explain its exciting property. The
wind of Petare coming from the east and south-east, by the eastern
extremity of the valley of the Guayra, brings from the mountains
and the interior of the country, a drier air, which dissipates the
clouds, and the summit of the Silla rises in all its beauty.
We know that the modifications produced by winds in the composition
of the air in various places, entirely escape our eudiometrical
experiments, the most precise of which can estimate only as far
as .0003 degrees of oxygen. Chemistry does not yet possess any
means of distinguishing two jars of air, the one filled during the
prevalence of the sirocco or the catia, and the other before these
winds have commenced.
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