PROFESSOR SMITH’S JOURNAL. 263 
we were obliged at last to cut the cable. ‘To-day, the 
29th, in the afternoon, we are again under sail. We have 
ascertained that we already must have passed the southern 
point of the bay of Loango, although this point on all our 
charts is placed much farther to the southward. The 
weather is clearing up and the heat is again encreasing. 
The nights are resembling those we had in the bay of 
Guinea, the atmosphere being clear, except at the horizon, 
where it is foggy. ‘The sea-breeze enables us to get to 
the southwards, and we shall soon see a new hemisphere, 
with new constellations appearing at night. The sea- 
breeze generally continwes until midnight, but is not fol- 
lowed by any land-breeze at all, the weather continuing 
calm until the sea-breeze sets in again at noon, or some- 
what later. This may be partly explained by supposing, 
that by the returning current of the air in the higher regions 
of the atmosphere, the eqilibrium is restored ; a supposition 
which is the more probable from the fact, that the fog, 
which had been driven together towards the shore, as 
soon as the calm comes on, again covers the heavens, which 
before were clear ; but the principal reason of the want of 
the land-breeze may probably be this, that the great cur- 
rent of air setting from the two coasts of this narrow part 
of Africa towards the interior, is deflected towards the 
north, where the continent is greatly extended, and where 
the heat is much more intense. 
Some days ago the sea had a colour as of blood. Some 
of us supposed it to be owing to the whales, which at this 
time approach the coasts in order to bring forth their 
