Physical Geography of the Great Oceans 107 



rose to 73, but fell again on closing the shore, being as low 

 as 59*5 when 5 miles off Independencia Bay, in lat. 14 S. 

 Further along the coast it averaged about 61, and in Payta 

 anchorage, in lat. 5 S., it was 63-5 F., though the heat on 

 shore was intolerable. On leaving Payta the ship rounded 

 Cape Blanco, and in a distance of 35 miles, during the night, 

 the temperature rose from 65 to 75. In rounding Cape 

 Blanco the ship had entered equatorial waters. The charac- 

 teristics of the South American coast waters were similar 

 to those of the Morocco coast the water cool, and the land 

 desert. There is no stream or current sufficient to affect 

 the passages of ships to the southward of Cape Blanco. North- 

 ward of Cape Blanco currents are met with running sometimes 

 in one direction, and sometimes in another. 



From the Guayaquil river the ship left the coast and steamed 

 straight to Panama, and the surface temperature varied from 

 75 to 80 F., which, for equatorial water, is comparatively 

 cool. The climate of Panama is remarkable. From January 

 to May the temperature of the water is much lower than that 

 of the air. Mr Ward, first officer of the s.s. "Colima," in which 

 I made the passage from Panama to San Francisco, kept 

 very careful meteorological logs, and I am indebted to him 

 for much information about the coast, which he kindly com- 

 municated to me. At the end of February 1885 the mean 

 (of four days) temperature, at midnight, of the air was 77 F. 

 and of the water 75-5, and at noon that of the air was 83-2 

 and of the water 74-8, so that at noon the temperature of 

 the watT was 8-4 lower than that of the air. At other seasons 

 of the year the warm counter equatorial water extends south- 

 ward of Panama and communicates to it the same oppress v- 

 climate to be found further north along the coast of Centi.tl 

 America. From Panama a< far as Cape Corrientes the tempera- 

 ture of the surface water was above 80 F., ami nearly always 

 above 84 F., at times as high as 88 and 89 F. It pradnallv 

 declined after rounding tin- rape to 77*4 \\lim an. lioring 

 at Mazatlan. On letting under way in tl noon the 



temperature of th< surface vas 75-8, and tin cold 



water must have come very close to the sr. :..r water 



