203 



The Maranoa was then in the Portugal current which flows from 

 Cape Finisterre, then south-south-east, coming very near to the 

 coast, and after rounding Cape St. Vincent joins that portion 

 of the North African current which enters the Mediterranean. 

 I expected that my bottles would have followed this course,, 

 and was much surprised when, through the kindness of Messrs. 

 Blandy, of Madeira, I received the original bottle-paper which 

 had, instead, travelled south-west, and was picked up by fisher- 

 men on the south beach of Porto Santo barely three months 

 afterwards (January 14th, 1884). Messrs. Blandy in their 

 letter to me say — " It is a strange thing it having turned up 

 there, as we have very distinct proofs of the current running 

 usually from north-west past our group of islands. From 

 Christmas until 15th January, however, we experienced a very 

 unusual spell of south-east winds veering continually between 

 east and south, and evidently of abnormal influence." 



The mountainous ridge terminating in Cape Spartel is an 

 imposing feature of much interest to the geologist. Alterna- 

 ting, however, with the bold escarpments of this portion of the 

 coast are low and undulating tracts, evidently the waste 

 material from the softer parts of what was once a higher range. 



The following sea-surface temperatures are worthy of special 

 note : — On October 23rd at 8 p.m, on coming up to Cape St. 

 Vincent, 60'4° was the value. At 8 a.m. next day when passing 

 abeam of the mouth of Guadalquiver, and about 80 miles dis- 

 tant, 65*0° was recorded. At noon, when 40 miles from Cadiz, 

 the temperature of the water had fallen 3'2°, and afterwards 

 appeared steadily to rise till 66*0° was registered at 8 p.m. in 

 the Strait. The discharge of the waters draining the heated 

 plains of Andalusia, and the influence of the converging land, 

 may tend to explain these temperatures. 



The famous "red glow" was first noticed at sunset on the 

 30th October. East of the 24th meridian intense vapour bands 

 were observed to the left of D in the spectrum throughout the 

 day at seven degrees above horizon. At times these bands were 

 almost black, but usually faded off with elevation of the in- 

 strument to the zenith. This extraordinary intensity of the 

 rain-band in the clear skies of the Levant I attribute to the 

 excess of vapour accumulated over the sea, and rapid evapora- 

 tion, and cannot establish a connection between them and the 

 sunset displays. 



Port Said was reached on the morning of November 1st, 

 and soon afterwards we entered the Suez Canal. 



I was much gratified to find that since my last passage 

 through the Canal (in 1874) a belt of vegetation had sprung 

 up on many parts of the banks, acting as a natural barrier 

 to the sand-dust, which otherwise would drift rapidly into the 



