IIED FOGS AND SEA BREEZES. 135 



lovely as they are, those, to northern sons, arc not the stars nor 

 the skies of fatherland. Alpha Lyra3, with his pure white light, 

 has gone from the zenith, and only appears for one short hour 

 above the top of the northern hills. Polaris and the Great Bear 

 have ceased to watch from their posts ; they are away down 

 below the horizon. But, glancing the eye above and around, 

 you are dazzled with the splendours of the firmament. The 

 moon and the planets stand out from it ; they do not seem to 

 touch the blue vault in which the stars are set. The Southern 

 Cross is just about to culminate. Climbing up in the east are 

 the Centaurs, Spica, Bootes, and Antares, with his lovely little 

 companion, which only the best telescopes have power to unveil. 

 These are all bright particular stars, differing from one another 

 in colour as they do in glory. At the same time, the western 

 sky is glorious with its brilliants too. Orion is there, just about 

 to march down into the sea; but Canopus and Sirius, with 

 Castor and his twin-brother, and Procyon, rj Argus, and Eegulus 

 — these are high up in their course ; they look down with gi'eat 

 splendour, smiling peacefully as they precede the Southern Cross 

 on its western way. And yonder, farther still, away to the 

 south, float the Magellanic clouds, and the " Coal Sacks " — those 

 mysterious, dark spots in the sky, which seem as though it had 

 been rent, and these were holes in the " azure robe of night," 

 looking out in the starless, empty, black abyss beyond. One 

 who has never v»'atched the southern sky in the stillness of the 

 night, after the sea breeze with its turmoil is done, can have no 

 idea of its grandeur, beauty, and loveliness. 



314. Land and sea breezes along the slwres of intertropical coun- 

 tries. — Within the tropics, however, the land and sea breezes are 

 more gentle, and, though the night scenes there are not so sug- 

 gestive as those just described, yet they are exceedingly delight- 

 ful and altogether lovely. The oppressive heat of the sun and 

 the climate of the sea-shore is mitigated and made both refresh- 

 ing and healthful by the alternation of those winds which in- 

 variably come from the coolest place — the sea, which is the 

 cooler by day, and the land, which is the cooler b}' night. 

 About ten in the morning the heat of the sun has 23layed upon 

 the land with sufficient intensity to raise its temperature aboA^e 

 that of the water. A portion of this heat, being imj^arted to the 

 superinciunbent air, causes it to rise, when the air, first from 

 the beach, then from the sea, to the distance of several miles, 



