278 EPOCHS IN THE HISTOKY OF THE CONTEMPLATION OP 



velopment of the geographical knowledge of the new world, and 

 of nautical astronomy in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries." 

 In order, however, to avoid its being supposed that I have 

 unduly mingled modern physical views with the remarks 

 of Columbus, I will commence with the literal translation 

 of a portion of a letter written by the Admiral in October 

 1498 from Hayti. 



" Each time that I sail from Spain to the Indies, I find 

 as soon as I arrive a hundred nautical miles to the west of 

 the Azores, an extraordinary alteration in the movement of 

 the heavenly bodies, in the temperature of the air, and in 

 the character of the ocean. I have observed these alterations 

 with particular care, and have recognised that the needle of 

 the mariner's compass (agujas de marear), the declination of 

 which had been to the north-east, now turned to the north- 

 west ; and when I had passed this line (ray a), as if I had 

 passed the ridge of a hill (como quien traspone una cuesta), 

 I found the sea covered with such a mass of weed resembling 

 small branches of pine trees with fruits like pistachio nuts, 

 that we were led to expect there would not be sufficient 

 water, and that the ships would run upon a shoal. Before 

 we had arrived at this line no trace of such sea- weed was to 

 be seen. Also at this boundary line (a hundred miles west 

 of the Azores) the sea becomes at once still and calm, scarcely 

 ever agitated by a breeze. As I came down from the Canary 

 Islands to the parallel of Sierra Leone I had to sustain a 

 terrible heat, but as soon as we had passed beyond the 

 above-mentioned line (west of the meridian of the Azores) 

 the climate altered, the air became temperate, and the 

 freshness increased the farther we advanced." 



This passage, which is elucidated by several others in 



