Temperature of the Globe. 845 



wind, carry along with them the fruits of palm trees from the An- 

 tilles; casks of French wines from wrecked ships; nay, even living 

 Esquimaux in their leather boats from East Greenland, which, 

 they cast on the coasts of Ireland, of the Hebrides, or of Nor- 

 way. A travelled astronomer, Captain Sabine, who, after re- 

 turning from the Polar llcgions, performed experiments with 

 the pendulum in the Gulf of Guinea, on the African Island of 

 St Thomas, informed me, how casks of palm oil, which had 

 been lost by shipwreck at Cape Lopez, a little south of the 

 Equator, were carried onwards, first by the equatorial current, 

 and then by the Gulf Stream, crossing the Atlantic twice, from 

 east to west, and from west to cast, between 3° and 50^ N. Lat., 

 safely arrived on the coasts of Scotland. The well preserved 

 mark of the African proprietors left no doubt as to the direc- 

 tion the casks had taken. In the same manner, as in this case, 

 the equatorial waters in the Atlantic are carried north by the 

 Gulf Stream, I have, in the Pacific, in its southern hemisphere, 

 observed a current (along the coasts of Chili and Peru), which 

 carries colder water from Ivgher latitudes to the Tropics. In 

 this current I saw the thermometer, in the port of Truxillo, in 

 the month of September, fall to 61° Fahr. (1J^°.8 R.) and in the 

 port of Callao, near Lima, at the end of November, to GCT 

 Fahr. (12°.4 R.) A distinguished young officer of the Danish 

 navy. Baron Dirckinck von Holmfeldt, has, at my request, at 

 different seasons of the year 1825, observed this singular phe- 

 nomenon, to which for so long a time no attention had been 

 paid. Making use of thermometers, carefully compared by Mr 

 Gay Lussac and myself, he again found the water of the sea, in 

 the port of Callao, in August 60i ° Fahr. (12°.6 It ) and in March 

 674° Fahr. (15°.7 R.) Whilst, out of the curren^ at the pro- 

 montory oi Parina, the calm sea, as usually in those latitudes, 

 showed the great heat of 794° to 8r.5 (21° to 22° R.) We 

 cannot, in this place, explain how this stream of colder water, 

 which increases the difficulty of the southern navigauon from 

 Guayaquil to Peru, and from Peru-to Chili, is for some months 

 modified in its temperature by the Garua, i. e. the vapours wliich 

 constantly veil the sun ; and how it renders the climate of the 

 plains of Peru cooler. 



As all human attempts to arrive at a scientific view of the 



