14 INTRODUCTION. 



which is from the beginning of October to the 

 latter end of May. 



The first rains generally commence on the 

 eastern declivity of the Cordilleras, the forma- 

 tion of the clouds and the precipitation of the 

 water dissolved in the air, on the coast of Vera 

 Cruz : these phenomena are accompanied with 

 strong electrical explosions, which take place 

 successively at Mexico, Guadalaxara, and on the 

 western coast ; the mountains in some of these 

 districts are upwards of 6560 feet above the level 

 of the sea. 



In the West India islands, the year is divided 

 into the w^et and dry seasons — two of each; spring 

 generally commencing about the middle of May, 

 when the first periodical rains set in, they being 

 remarkable for falling every day about noon, 

 during the first fortnight, creating a bright ver- 

 dure and a rapid and luxuriant vegetation ; the 

 weather afterwards becomes dry, clear, and set- 

 tled; the sun glows with heat, which is almost 

 insupportable, till the sea breeze springing up 

 about ten o'clock in the forenoon, all nature 

 revives, and the temperature in the shade be- 

 comes pleasant: this state of the weather ceases 

 about the middle of August, when the steady 

 diurnal wind from the sea is succeeded by faint 

 breezes and alternate calms, the preludes to the 

 second or autumnal rainy season. 



