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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Waterspouts Were Formed At The
Distance Of A Mile And Were Carried Rapidly From North-North-East To
North-North-West.
Whenever the waterspout drew near us we felt the
wind grow sensibly cooler.
Towards evening, owing to the carelessness
of our American cook, our deck took fire; but fortunately it was soon
extinguished. On the morning of the 1st of December the sea slowly
calmed and the breeze became steady from north-east. On the 2nd of
December we descried Cape Beata, in a spot where we had long observed
the clouds gathered together. According to the observations of
Acherner, which I obtained in the night, we were sixty-four miles
distant. During the night there was a very curious optical phenomenon,
which I shall not undertake to account for. At half-past midnight the
wind blew feebly from the east; the thermometer rose to 23.2 degrees,
the whalebone hygrometer was at 57 degrees. I had remained upon the
deck to observe the culmination of some stars. The full-moon was high
in the heavens. Suddenly, in the direction of the moon, 45 degrees
before its passage over the meridian, a great arch was formed tinged
with the prismatic colours, though not of a bright hue. The arch
appeared higher than the moon; this iris-band was near 2 degrees
broad, and its summit seemed to rise nearly from 80 to 85 degrees
above the horizon of the sea. The sky was singularly pure; there was
no appearance of rain; and what struck me most was that this
phenomenon, which perfectly resembled a lunar rainbow, was not in the
direction opposite to the moon.
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