652 JAMAICA. 



water here finks deep, and the mountainous refervoirs fupply the 

 fprings and wells below with a liberal (lore. 



I have no meafurement of the dews which fall in this ifland, but 

 in many parts of it they are very confiderable, inlotnuch that in one 

 of the mountainous diftridls, where there is a fcarcity of fprings, the 

 cattle are fufficiently watered by the dew which overfpreads the her- 

 bage every morning; in genera], in the mountains, it is fo heavy that 

 a perfon, walking among grafs, or through a cane-piece early in the 

 morning, would foon be as wet as if he had gone through a river. It 

 is always leaft before heavy rains, and moil: copious in the cooler 

 months of the year. Yet I obferved once, in the month of January, 

 that, although the weather had been very warm for the time of 

 year, and dry, with (trong fea-breezes niglit and day, which are not 

 common in this month, the dews in the South lowlands were un- 

 ufually heavy. In Spanifli Town they are much larger than in King- 

 fton, owing perhaps to the vicinity of the Rio Cobre. Hail is a 

 phenomenon that has often been obferved here. In 1757, a fhower 

 fell at Port Royal. The flakes were fome of them large, but foon 

 difTolved. In the midland mountains it is more common; tranfient 

 fhowers happening almofl: every year, generally in Auguft, or Sep- 

 tember. They fall from thunder-clouds, floating at a confiderable 

 height, and produce a fudden great change to coolncfs in the air. 

 The freezing point in this atmofphere is probably not higher than 

 about two miles and three eighths in the hottefl fealbn of the year [«] ; 

 lince, on the fummit of the mountain Pichincha, in Peru, which is 

 little more than two miles and an half in height, and under the line, 

 the thermometer [0] was obferved, on the 17th of Auguft, to fink 

 four degrees below the freezing point, about fix o'clock in the 

 morning. 



S E C T. X. 



Thermometrical Remarks. 



Comparifon of Heat and CooLnefs, during one Year, between Charles 



Town, in South Carolina, and Spaniflj Town, in Jamaica. 



Monti). '" " . _ - . 



January, 

 February, 

 March, 

 AprU, 



May, 



June, 



July, 



