184 METEOROLOGY. 



with the coast, at an elevation of from 7,000 to 8,000 feet, we travel 

 about six miles over a region hare of forest, where we nearly at all 

 times find a very strong breeze from the south, rushing up the declivity 

 and over the ridge, hurries off to the north towards the ocean. The 

 ocean can be plainly seen from this elevation. That this great current 

 of air does not sink down along the northern slope, but, on the con- 

 trary, is somewhat projected upwards by tlie shape of the mountain, 

 can be seen by the course of the condensed vapors which, in the form 

 of fog and mist, are driven along. May not this current of air sink 

 gradually lower and lower until it reaches about latitude 18°, where 

 jt strikes the sea? I have found this south wind at sea always much 

 colder than any of the other winds in these latitudes. 



I wish I was in possession of some good work on the winds and the 

 currents of the ocean. 



Vegetation at the colony is uninterrupted throughout the whole 

 year, except in a small class of plants which cannot thrive without a 

 great deal of moisture. Even in the dry season, when the lower re- 

 gions are parched up with heat, if there is any moisture at all in 

 the atmosphere capable of being condensed, the mountainous districts, 

 especially those covered with forests, are sure to get some of it. Trees 

 here are evergreens; they keep their branches and twigs clothed with 

 leaves until death. Day after day, and month after month, the sur- 

 rounding forest presents the same unchanged view in its deep green 

 garment. Single leaves fall here and there one by one ; and new 

 leaves appear as slowly and gradually as the old ones die away — un- 

 noticed and unobserved. The pleasing and hope-inspiring spectacle 

 of returning spring, in the sudden appearance of the new and tender 

 foliage, as seen in the temperate regions, is here unknown. 



CoLONiA TovAK, January 8, 1857. 



Dear Sir : Under date of August 5 I sent you a letter and some 

 registers of meteorological observations up to the 31st of July, which, 

 I hope, you will have received long before this. 



Inclosed in a separate envelope I send you now four meteorological 

 registers for the months of August, September, October and Novem- 

 ber, I would have sent one for December also, but I have no more 

 blanks. 



Besides these registers, I have inclosed diagrams* on four separate 

 sheets, one table of half-hourly barometrical observations, and one 

 about the course of the clouds. 



The barometrical observations in the registers have their full value 

 only up to October 30, at 2 p. m ; for when I looked at the height 

 of the mercury one hour afterwards I found it more than one inch 

 below its usual level. This was so extraordinary that I expected 

 something wrong with the instrument. As soon as I touched it the 

 whole column of mercury sank rapidly down. In unscrewing the 

 brass cup which contains the little leather bag I found the former 

 half filled with mercury. On the surface of the bag, a little below 



* The diagrams and curves could not be given in this report. 



