BOOK III. CHAP. VII. 599 



When at SpaniOi Town, the ther--i 

 mometer was at j 9 



>c!ifferencc 



, 7 degrees. 



It was, in the vale, 82 



When at Spanifh Town, 67") 



T. • *! 1 / f-ditto, 6 ditto. 



It was, m the vale, • 61 J ' 



Hence we may eftimate the difference of the air's temperature in 

 the vaiious dih:ri£ls of the illand : i'o that, if the air of the towns 

 is. at any time, found of a degree of licat inconvenient to health 

 and eafe, a perfon, who travels only a few miles inland, to the 

 hilly or mountainous fituations, is fure to meet with a temperate 

 and refrefliing air. About feventy degrees on the thermometer is 

 a mofl delightful temperature ; even to feventy-eight and eighty it 

 is not inconvenient ; and feventy-eight is about the ?nedium flate at 

 Sp.aiifh Town during fix months in the year. 



The hotteft time of the year, in Jamaica, is juft before the 

 fetting-in of the autumnal rains, or the months of Auguft: and 

 September. 



The vernal feafons, if they come at all, happen indifcriminatelv 

 in April or May, but more regularly in May. But they fail, at 

 leaft, four out of feven years ; and this difappointment is amply 

 recompenfed by the vaft quantity of rain that falls about the latter 

 end of Auguft, and in courfe of the two fucceeding months. 

 When the vernal feafon flhls, I have remarked, that a double fall of 

 rain, or double feafon, has happened ; the firft fetting-in at the 

 latter end of Auguft and the beginning of September ; then dif- 

 continuing till towards the clofe of Oilober, wlien it has re-com- 

 menced, and held on, more or lefs, till the loth or 15th of No- 

 vember. 



The medium heat of Spanifli Town, in the cooler part of tiie 

 year, is, as I have mentioned, about feventy-eight; and, in the 

 hotter months, about eighty- five. The higheft in the whole year 

 has rarely exceeded ninety-two. I remember to have feen it above 

 this but once, which was in Auguft, 1767; when, during fome 

 days of very unufual heat, which preceded a heavy rain, it rofe 

 one afternoon to ninety-three; but other thermometers made it 

 four degrees lefs in every legifter. I fhall hereafter refume this 

 fubjedl; but, at prefent, it it is ncccfl'iry I I'houkl mention fome 



particulars 



