Trade-lVindSy Rio Janeito, &c. 1 13 



about two years after, they found as fresh as on the day of inter- 

 ment, so completely protected had the grave been by the con- 

 gealment of the sn'uw that had fallen, and which, it appeared, 

 had resisted the influence of the sun and equatorial winds. Their 

 long-boat too, which they had no scruple in leaving there, they 

 found safely imbedded in a congealed mass of snow on their re- 

 turn. 



In my letter to you from the Prcvoyante, in the Channel, in 

 1817, which you deemed worthy of meeting the public eye, al- 

 though not slyly intended for it, I believe I pointed out that 

 the western parts of the northern hemisphere, where I had been, 

 are colder in winter, and more variable in summer, than those 

 places, under the same parallels, in the eastern part of the same 

 hemisphere ; and from what I lately heard, as well as formerly 

 read, I am likewise led to think that the air of South America 

 is, on the whole, colder or more temperate than places under 

 the same latitudes in the southern part of the eastern hemi- 

 sphere, even after the exclusion of the vast sandy and heated de- 

 serts in it. 



A little after 10 A.M. of Friday November 27th, in latitude 

 5° north, and long. 20" 26' west, about half-way between the ship 

 and the verge of the horizon, the ship's head having been S.W. 

 I W. 1 observed on the larboard quarter a large water-spout. It 

 appeared in the form of a long clumsy pillar, with its superior part 

 expanding into a large dense black cloud, from which it seemed 

 to be suspended to about 50 or 60 feet aI)ove the level of the sea. 

 The water, I understood, had just ceased to be violently agitated 

 as I got a sight of it. The sides of the spout appeared of the 

 same black colour as the cloud, and the internal part of the body 

 of it of a dusky hue. It might have been about a minute in go- 

 ing up, rather'slowly at first, but finally with a motion that was 

 instantaneous. — The following I beg leave succinctly to state as 

 my notions concerning these phcsnomena. 



Electricity is known from experiments to be in a greater quan- 

 tity in clouds than in the proximate i)aris of the atmosphere. It 

 is particularly attractive of aqueous vapour, and suspends it after 

 it is condensed. Clouds are therefore a peculiar vehicle of it. 

 Its agency and effects, however, are most striking in those con- 

 taining tlie greatest proportions of light and calorific, and are 

 commonly manifested on aiiy abstraction of the latter; and on the 

 contrary,"thc decrease of temperature not unfre(|ueutly noticed 

 after thunder-storms and changes of vvinds, is the natural result 

 of its presence and its influence. A great proof of its alhnity to 

 the matter of heat is, that all bodies become conductors of it when 

 they are made hot. The motions of the clouds from wind are 

 influenced by it, in its motion to restore the equilibrium, when 

 Vol. 54. No. 256. Aug. ISl'J. H tlicy 



