PROFESSOR SMITHS JOURNAL. 263 



we were obliged at last to cut the cable. To-day, the 

 29th, in the afternoon, Ave are again under sail. We have 

 ascertained that we already must have passed the southern 

 point of the bay of Loango, although this point on all our 

 charts is placed much farther to the southward. The 

 weather is clearing up and the heat is again encreasing. 

 The nights are resembling those we had in the bay of 

 Guinea, the atmosphere being clear, except at the horizon, 

 where it is foggy. The sea-breeze enables us to get to 

 the southwards, and we shall soon see a new hemisphere, 

 with new constellations appearing at night. The sea- 

 breeze generally continues until midnight, but is not fol- 

 lowed by any land-breeze at all, the weather continuing 

 calm until the sea-breeze sets in again at noon, or some- 

 what later. This may be partly explained by supposing, 

 that b}' the returning current of the air in the higher regions 

 of the atmosphere, the eqilibrium is restored ; a supposition 

 which is the more probable from the fact, that the fog, 

 which had been driven together towards the shore, as 

 soon as the calm comes on, again covers the heavens, Avhich 

 before were clear ; but the principal reason of the want of 

 the land-breeze may probably be this, that the great cur- 

 rent of air setting from the two coasts of this narrow part 

 of Africa towards the interior, is deflected towards the 

 north, where the continent is greatly extended, and where 

 the heat is much more intense. 



Some days ago the sea had a colour as of blood. Some 

 of us supposed it to be owing to the whales, which at this 

 time approach the coasts in order to bring forth their 



