ITS AVERAGE TEMPEKATUBE. 173 



Ilavannah; and to prove by an exact comparison with 

 other points alike distant from the equator, for instance, 

 with Kio Janeiro and Macao, that the lowering of tem- 

 perature observed in the island of Cuba is owing to 

 the irruption, and the stream of layers of cold air, borne 

 from the temperate zones towards the tropics of Cancer 

 and Capricorn. The mean temperature of the Havannah, 

 according to four years of good observations, is 25*7 

 (20-6 K.), only 2 cent, above that of the regions of 

 America nearest the equator. The proximity of the sea 

 raises the mean temperature of the year on the coast ; but 

 in the interior of the island, when the north winds penetrate 

 with the same force, and where the soil rises to the height 

 of forty toises, the mean temperature attains only 23 

 (18 - 4 E.), and does not exceed that of Cairo and Lower 

 Egypt. The difference between the mean temperature of 

 the hottest and coldest months, rises to 12 in the interior 

 of the island ; at the Havannah, and on the coast, to 8 ; at 

 Cumana, to scarcely 3. The hottest months, July and 

 August, attain 28'8, at the island of Cuba, perhaps 29'5 

 of mean temperature, as at the equator. The coldest months 

 are December and January ; their mean temperature, in the 

 interior of the island, is 17 ; at the Havannah, 21, that is, 

 5 to 8 below the same months at the equator, yet still 3 

 above the hottest month at Paris. 



It will be interesting to compare the climate of the 

 Havannah with that of Macao and Rio Janeiro ; two places, 

 one of which is near the limit of the northern torrid zone, 

 on the eastern coast of Asia ; and the other on the eastern 

 coast of America, towards the extremity of the southern 

 torrid zone. 



The climate of the Havannah, notwithstanding the fre- 

 quency of the north and north-west winds, is hotter than 

 that of Macao and Rio Janeiro. The former partakes of 

 the cold which, owing to the frequency of the west winds, 

 is felt in winter along all the eastern coast of a great con- 

 tinent. The proximity of spaces of land, covered with 

 mountains and table-lands, renders the distribution of heat 

 in different months of the year, more unequal at Macao 

 and Canton, than in an island bounded on the west and 

 north by the hot waters of the Gulf-stream. The winters 

 are therefore much colder at Cantou and Macao than at the 



