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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In The Year 1783 (Under The Ministry Of M.
Valdes) Don Josef Espinosa, Don Dionisio Galiano And Don Josef De Lanz
Proposed To The Spanish Government A Plan For Taking A Survey Of The
Coast Of America, In Order To Extend The Atlas Of Tofino To The
Western Colonies.
The plan was approved; but it was not till 1792 that
an expedition was fitted out at Cadiz, and they were enabled to
commence their scientific operations at the island of Trinidad.
CHAPTER 3.31. CUBA AND THE SLAVE TRADE.
I might enumerate among the causes of the lowering of the temperature
at Cuba during the winter months, the great number of shoals with
which the island is surrounded, and on which the heat is diminished
several degrees of centesimal temperature. This diminished heat may be
assigned to the molecules of water locally cooled, which go to the
bottom; to the polar currents, which are borne toward the abyss of the
tropical ocean, or to the mixture of the deep waters with those of the
surface at the declivities of the banks. But the lowering of the
temperature is partly compensated by the flood of hot water, the Gulf
Stream, which runs along the north-west coast, and the swiftness of
which is often diminished by the north and north-east winds. The chain
of shoals which encircles the island and which appears on our maps
like a penumbra, is fortunately broken on several points, and those
interruptions afford free access to the shore.
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