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 Thermometer At
Canton Has Sometimes Almost Reached The Point Zero; And By The Effect
Of Reflection, Ice Has Been Found On The Terraces Of Houses.
Although
this great cold never lasts more than one day, the English merchants
residing at Canton like to make chimney-fires in their apartments from
November to January; while at the Havannah, the artificial warmth even
of a brazero is not required.
Hail is frequent and the hail-stones are
extremely large in the Asiatic climate of Canton and Macao, while it
is scarcely seen once in fifteen years at the Havannah. In these three
places the thermometer sometimes keeps up for several hours between 0
and 4 degrees (centigrade); and yet (a circumstance which appears to
be very remarkable) snow has never been seen to fall; and
notwithstanding the great lowering of the temperature, the bananas and
the palm-trees are as beautiful around Canton, Macao and the Havannah
as in the plains nearest the equator.
In the island of Cuba the lowering of the temperature lasts only
during intervals of such short duration that in general neither the
banana, the sugar-cane nor other productions of the torrid zone suffer
much. We know how well plants of vigorous organization resist
temporary cold, and that the orange trees of Genoa survive the fall of
snow and endure cold which does not more than exceed 6 or 7 degrees
below freezing-point. As the vegetation of the island of Cuba bears
the character of the vegetation of the regions near the equator, we
are surprised to find even in the plains a vegetable form of the
temperate climates and mountains of the equatorial part of Mexico.
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