196 Remarks on Madeira, Climate of the Tropics, 



Here also the beetles act in stunning concert at night, while the 

 creeping things hurtful and unhurtful venture out with impunity 

 and in safety. 



We departed from Sharks* Bay on Tuesday the 23d of Febru- 

 ary at 5 A.M., and at 7 P.M. the same day anchored opposite 

 Villa Velha Princessa, in the island of St. Sebastian, in seventeen 

 fathoms, in the channel between it and the main land, or terra 

 Jirma, as the Portuguese- Brasilians very properly term it. In 

 this place, which is remarkable for thunder and lightning, we 

 witnessed a violent thunder-storm on the second night after our 

 arrival. Here we completed our lading, and took our departure 

 from it for Rio de .Janeiro on Friday the I'ith of March at 10 

 A.M., at which we again arrived on Friday the 19th of the same 

 month at noon, and finally left it for England on Saturday the 

 24th of April at 6 A.M. " We crossed the equator in 20° 30' 

 west longitude, in the first watch (at night) of Saturday the 22d 

 of May; on which dav at noon the temperature was, with mo- 

 derate breezes from the SAV.,at ^(\° : and on Sunday the 30th, 

 in 3" 26' north latitude and 18° 54' west longitude, it was, with 

 light and variable airs at noon, up to 94, the highest that I re- 

 marked it between the tropics on our way out and home this 

 voyage. We crossed the tropic of Cancer in 36° 15' west longi- 

 tude, between 9 and 10 at nigiit, the 16th of June, on which 

 day, at noon, the temperature was, with lowering dense clouds 

 and fresh easterly breezes, only at 76, notwithstanding the ver- 

 tical position of the sun at the same time. And between the 

 tropic at this meridian and the unusual extent of the trade-winds 

 to the parallel of 44" north and the meridian of 3S west, this 

 month (as already stated") the temperature was only between 77 

 and 72: — so unstable are the elements, that Bacon might vvell 

 cry out in his sounding and emphatic gerunds — " non fingeTi- 

 dum, attt excogitmidum, sed inveniendum, quod vatura J'aciat 

 ant feral." At 72° we all at first thought it extremely cool ; a 

 proof that animal sensation, depending, as it entirely does, on 

 previous susceptibility, that is continually varied by every passing- 

 influence, has little relation in the admeasurement of the absolute 

 matter of heat. Between this and the latitude of 42° 23' north 

 and longitude 23° 56' west, to which we arrived on the 2d of 

 July at noon, the temperature was, with prevailing breezes from 

 the southward, between 73 and 69 ; and between this and the 

 latitude of 45" 51' north and 16° 40' west, to which we arrived 

 on the 6th of July at noon, the temperature was, with prevailing 

 breezes from the northward, between 60 and 56 ; and from this 

 to the soundings in Channel, to which v.e have just arrived, the 

 10th of July, after a tediou- passage of eleven weeks, it has been, 

 with prevailing breezes from the \vestward, and with an appa- 



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