6o6 JAMAICA. 



South-caO:, the current of air in the morning will proceed from the 

 North-weft, till he is advanced to confiderable elevation ; after 

 which, the wind will be found to agitate a little from the South- 

 eaft, till he fets ; at which time, the North will fpring up again 

 from the North-eaft, and continue all night. 



Thefe obfervations do not hold regularly in all parts of the 

 ifland ; for, in lome, the natural polltion of the interfedting moun- 

 tains, or lome other local caufe, may produce a variation in ap- 

 pearance. But, in general, they lufficiently mark the changes 

 which are incident to thefe currents of air in Jamaica ; the wind 

 molt commonly falling into the fun's track in the fore-part of the 

 day, and facing its dilk in the after-part. 



In the month of April, after a continuance for fome time of dry 

 weather, with violent fea- breezes, the thermometer generally at 

 eighty-feven and eighty-eight in Spanifli Town, all day, and till 

 late in the evening (a proof of the great heat in the atmofpherc), 

 a hidden rain fell, which held, more or lefs, during five fucceflivc 

 days. The thermometer funk thereupon to eighty-four and eighty ; 

 but, the rainy weather breaking up, and the fea-breeze returning 

 again with the fame violence as before, the thermometer role, in 

 one day, to its primitive ftation of eighty-eight. Hence it would 

 fcem, that the fea-breeze does not aftually render the air cooler, 

 but only communicates a fenlation of coolnefs, by agitating the 

 atmofpliere which invelopes a human body ; for, on the days when 

 it blew with greateft force, the thermometer rofe higheft ; and, 

 when it blew late in the evening, the thermometer funk very little; 

 but the nights were hot, and difagrecable. 



A real, as well as fenfiblc, coolnefs proceeds here from the in- 

 terpofition of clouds, which render the air of every place that is 

 is fcreened by them more temperate. In the month of June, fome 

 heavy clouds, pafting to the Weft ward in the afternoon, threw a 

 very cxtenfive fhade over the part of the country where I then 

 happened to be, and caufed lb immediate an alteration in the ftate 

 of the air, that the thermometer fell from ninety-two to eighty- 

 leven, or five degrees; fo great a difterence is here, occnfioned by 

 a clear or clouded atmofpherc. And this phjenomenon affifts to 

 .flievv, why the mountains, and midland parts of tliis illand, ex- 



clufivc 



