Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 3 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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Why Do The Waters
Flow, For The Space Of Whole Weeks, From The Havannah To Matanzas, And
(To Cite An
Example of the corriente por arriba, which is sometimes
observed in the most eastern part of the main land during
The
prevalence of gentle winds) from La Guayra to Cape Codera and Cumana?
As we advanced, on the 25th of March, towards the coast of Darien, the
north-east wind increased with violence. We might have imagined
ourselves transported to another climate. The sea became very rough
during the night yet the temperature of the water kept up (from
latitude 10 degrees 30 minutes, to 9 degrees 47 minutes) at 25.8
degrees. We perceived at sunrise a part of the archipelago* of Saint
Bernard, which closes the gulf of Morrosquillo on the north. (* It is
composed of the islands Mucara, Ceycen, Maravilla, Tintipan, Panda,
Palma, Mangles, and Salamanquilla, which rise little above the sea.
Several of them have the form of a bastion. There are two passages in
the middle of this archipelago, from seventeen to twenty fathoms.
Large vessels can pass between the Isla Panda and Tintipan, and
between the Isla de Mangles and Palma.) A clear spot between the
clouds enabled me to take the horary angles. The chronometer, at the
little island of Mucara, gave longitude 78 degrees 13 minutes 54
seconds. We passed on the southern extremity of the Placer de San
Bernardo. The waters were milky, although a sounding of twenty-five
fathoms did not indicate the bottom; the cooling of the water was not
felt, doubtless owing to the rapidity of the current. Above the
archipelago of Saint Bernard and Cape Boqueron we saw in the distance
the mountains of Tigua. The stormy weather and the difficulty of going
up against the wind induced the captain of our frail vessel to seek
shelter in the Rio Sinu, or rather, near the Punta del Zapote,
situated on the eastern bank of the Ensenada de Cispata, into which
flows the river Sinu or the Zenu of the early Conquistadores. It
rained with violence, and I availed myself of that occasion to measure
the temperature of the rain-water: it was 26.3 degrees, while the
thermometer in the air kept up, in a place where the bulb was not wet,
at 24.8 degrees. This result differed much from that we had obtained
at Cumana, where the rain-water was often a degree colder than the
air.* (* As, within the tropics, it takes but little time to collect
some inches of water in a vase having a wide opening, and narrowing
towards the bottom, I do not think there can be any error in the
observation, when the heat of the rain-water differs from that of the
air. If the heat of the rain-water be less than that of the air it may
be presumed that only a part of the total effect is observed. I often
found at Mexico at the end of June, the rain at 19.2 or 19.4 degrees,
when the air was at 17.8 and 18 degrees.
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