196 NATURAL HISTORY. 



of great cities, which must needs take in a great deal 

 of filth. 



Experiment solitary touching the temperate heat under 

 the equinoctial. 



398. In Peru, and divers parts of the West 

 Indies, though under the line, the heats are not so 

 intolerable as they he in Barbary, and the skirts of 

 the torrid zone. The causes are, first the great 

 breezes which the motion of the air in great circles, 

 such, as are under the girdle of the world, produceth, 

 which do refrigerate ; and therefore in those parts 

 noon is nothing so hot, when the breezes are great, 

 as about nine or ten of the clock in the forenoon. 

 Another cause is, for that the length of the night, 

 and the dews thereof, do compensate the heat of the 

 day. A third cause is, the stay of the sun ; not in 

 respect of day and night, for that we spake of before, 

 but in respect of the season ; for under the line the 

 sun crosseth the line, and maketh two summers and 

 two winters, but in the skirts of the torrid zone it 

 doubleth and goeth back again, and so maketh one 

 long summer. 



Experiment solitary touching the coloration of black 

 and tawny Moors. 



399. The heat of the sun maketh men black in 

 some countries, as in ^Ethiopia and Guiney, &c. 

 Fire doth it not, as we see in glass-men, that are 

 continually about the fire. The reason may be, 



