THE CLOUD REGION, ETC. 267 



The cliurnal variation of the needle (§ 344) changes also with the 

 tiuming of ihese invisible tides. Continmng his coni'se towards the 

 equinoctial line, and entering the region of equatorial calms and 

 rams, the navigator feels the weather to become singularly close and 

 oppressive ; he discovers here that the elasticity of feeling which he 

 breathed from the trade-wind air has forsaken him ; he has entered 

 the doldrums, and is under the "cloud-ring." 



515. I find in the journal of the late Commodore Ai'thur Sin- 

 A frigate under the clair, kept ou board the United States frigate Con- 

 cioud-iing. gross dming a cruise to South America in 1817-18, 



a pictm-e of the weather mider this doud-ring that is singularly 

 graphic and striking. He encountered it m the month of Janu- 

 ary, 1818, between the parallel of 4° north and the equator, and 

 between the meridians of 19° and 23° west. He says of it, " This 

 is certainly one of the most unpleasant regions in our globe. A 

 dense, close atmosphere, except for a fcAV hours after a thunder- 

 storm, diu:ing which time torrents of rain fall, when the air 

 becomes a little refreshed ; but a hot, glowmg smi soon heats it 

 again, and but for yom^ a^wngs, and the little air put in circu- 

 lation by the continual flapping of the ship's sails, it would be 

 almost insufferable. No person who has not crossed this region 

 can form an adequate idea of its unpleasant effects. You feel a 

 degree of lassitude unconquerable, which not even the sea-bathing, 

 which everywhere else proves so salutary and renovating, can 

 dispel. Except when in actual danger of shipvTcck, I never spent 

 twelve more disagreeable days in the professional part of my life 

 than in these calm latitudes. I crossed the line on the 17th of 

 January, at eight a.m., in longitude 21° 20', and soon found I had 

 surmounted all the difficulties consequent to that event ; that the 

 breeze continued to freshen and draw romid to the south-south-east, 

 bringing with it a clear sky and most heavenly temperature, reno- 

 vating and refreshing beyond description. Nothing was now to be 

 seen but cheerful countenances, exchanged as by enchantment from 

 that sleepy sluggishness which had borne us all down for the last 

 two weeks." 



516. One need not go to sea to perceive the grand work which 

 subjocts ^hich at sea the clouds perfomi in collecting moisture from the 

 tor contemplation, crystal vaults of tlio sky, in sprinlding it upon the 

 fields, and making the hills glad with showers of rain. Winter 

 and summer, "the clouds drop fatness upon the earth." This 

 part of their office is obvious to all, and I do not propose to con- 



