Chap. IX. CLIMATE OF MAYOLO. 195 



The climate of Mayolo seems very variable and 

 uncertain ; and night after night I was disappointed 

 when preparing to take lunar distances or meridian 

 altitudes of stars, by the sudden clouding of the 

 heavens. The sky would often be very clear and 

 settled, inducing me to get my sextant in order, 

 prepare a quicksilver artificial horizon, and note 

 the index error ; l>ut a thick mist would suddenly 

 arise and put an eVid to all operations. But now 

 and then I had magnificent nights, so that I suc- 

 ceeded in taking a pretty long series of obser- 

 vations for latitude and longitude before I left 

 Mayolo ; so complete are they, that the position of 

 the town may be considered as well fixed ; but I 

 should fail were I to attempt to describe the diffi- 

 culties and disappointments I had to contend with in 

 completing them. There was something rather 

 remarkable also about the deposit of dew. I re- 

 marked that at Mayolo and Ashira the grass was 

 often very damp before sunset, when the sun had dis- 

 appeared behind the mountains. It was so damp 

 that it wetted my shoes in walking through ; and, at 

 ten minutes after sunset, dew drops were plentiful 

 along the edges of the plantain leaves, even on those 

 trees which the sun had shone upon just before dis- 

 appearing below the horizon. The dew drops 

 glittering on the margins of these beautiful leaves 

 looked like crystal drops or gems, appearing the 

 brighter from the contrast with the velvety green hue 

 of the magnificent foliage. One evening I watched 

 closely the first appearance of these dew drops. 

 At a quarter past five, before the sun had quite 



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