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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The Arch Remained Stationary, Or At
Least Appeared To Do So, During Eight Or Ten Minutes; And At The
Moment When I Tried If It Were Possible To See It By Reflection In The
Mirror Of The Sextant, It Began To Move And Descend, Crossing
Successively The Moon And Jupiter.
It was 12 hours 54 minutes (mean
time) when the summit of the arch sank below the horizon.
This
movement of an arch, coloured like the rainbow, filled with
astonishment the sailors who were on watch on the deck. They alleged,
as they do on the appearance of every extraordinary meteor, that it
denoted wind. M. Arago examined the sketch of this arch in my journal;
and he is of opinion that the image of the moon reflected in the
waters could not have given a halo of such great dimensions. The
rapidity of the movement is no small obstacle in the way of
explanation of a phenomenon well worthy of attention.
On the 3rd of December we felt some uneasiness on account of the
proximity of a small vessel supposed to be a pirate but which, as it
drew near, we recognized to be the Balandra del Frayle (the sloop of
the Monk). I was at a loss to conceive what so strange a denomination
meant. The bark belonged to a Franciscan missionary, a rich priest of
am Indian village in the savannahs (Llanos) of Barcelona, who had for
several years carried on a very lucrative contraband trade with the
Danish islands.
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