2 MADEIRA METEOROLOGIC. PART i. 



thereby; for the generalities of mathematical geography 

 are one thing, and the intricate working of detail in 

 physical geography is occasionally quite another. 



The following, at all events, are the simple phenomena 

 of ordinary observation which offered themselves to my 

 notice when approaching the island last year. We had 

 sailed from England in May, during the prevalence of a 

 bitter, biting, north-east wind ; when the sun certainly 

 shone every day, but with a feeble, sickly glare out of 

 a dry, hazy sky, unflecked by any strongly - featured, 

 positive clouds. That wind as to its direction, and that 

 nearly cloudless sky, continued with us in our voyage, 

 which was directed due south. But day after day, 

 most sensibly too, thanks to the quick pace of the 

 Donald Currie steamship, 1 the sun at noon rose higher 

 above the masts ; the sky became of a purer, deeper 

 blue ; and the wind still more rapidly rose in temperature, 

 until it became the genial " Trades " of lower latitudes. 



Hence, by the time that we were running along the 

 coast of Portugal, and nearly crossing the parallel of 

 Lisbon, the proverbial laziness of warm climates began 

 to manifest itself amongst the once active young gentle- 

 men on board ; who now did little else than lounge at 

 full length on all varieties of triple and quadruple easy- 

 chairs, and complain of the splendid sunshine. 



1 R.M.S. Dunrobin Castle, Captain J. B. Harrison, R.N.R., out ; R.M.S. 

 Warwick Castle, Captain J. C. Robinson, returning ; and either captain ad- 

 mirably carrying out the obliging intentions of Sir Donald Currie to facilitate 

 our voyage and transport, either way, of large astronomical instrument boxes. 



