This Ridge, And The Old Dyke, Which Link, By The Rock Of Sancho Pardo, Cape San Antonio To The Peninsula Of Yucatan, Divide The Great Sea Of The West Indies Into Three Partial Basins, Similar To Those Observed In The Mediterranean.

The colour of the troubled waters on the shoal of La Vibora has not a milky appearance like the waters in the Jardinillos and on the bank of Bahama; but it is of a dirty grey colour.

The striking differences of tint on the bank of Newfoundland, in the archipelago of the Bahama Islands and on La Vibora, the variable quantities of earthy matter suspended in the more or less troubled waters of the soundings, may all be the effects of the variable absorption of the rays of light, contributing to modify to a certain point the temperature of the sea. Where the shoals are 8 to 10 degrees colder at their surface than the surrounding sea, it cannot be surprising that they should produce a local change of climate. A great mass of very cold water, as on the bank of Newfoundland, in the current of the Peruvian shore (between the port of Callao and Punta Parina* (* I found the surface of the Pacific ocean, in the month of October 1802 on the coast of Truxillo, 15.8 degrees centigrade; in the port of Callao, in November, 15.5; between the parallel of Callao and Punta Parina, in December, 19 degrees; and progressively, when the current advanced towards the equator and receded towards the west-north-west, 20.5 and 22.3 degrees)), or in the African current near Cape Verd, have necessarily an influence on the atmosphere that covers the sea, and on the climate of the neighbouring land; but it is less easy to conceive that those slight changes of temperature (for instance, a centesimal degree on the bank of La Vibora) can impart a peculiar character to the atmosphere of the shoals.

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