112 THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA. 



state of equilibrium, is then ready to obey even the most feeble 

 impulse, and to hasten toward the place of any, the slightest rare- 

 faction. 



256. At about ten in the morning, at this season of the year, 

 the land begins to feel the sun, and there is a movement in the 

 air. By 3 or 4 P.M., the sea-breeze comes rushing in from the 

 southward and westward, and strikes the shipping in the harbor 

 with the force of a gale. Vessels sometimes drag before it, and 

 communication with the shore is suspended. By 6 P.M., how- 

 ever, the wind has spent its fury, and there is a perfect calm.] 



257. "Happy he," continues Jansen, "w^ho, in the Java Sea 

 at evening, seeking the land-breeze off the coast, finds it there, 

 after the salt-bearing, roaring sea-wind, and can, in the magnifi- 

 cent nights of the tropics, breathe the refreshing land-breeze, oft- 

 times laden with delicious odors.* 



258. " The veil of clouds, either after a squall, with or without 

 rain, or after the coming of the land-breeze, is speedily withdrawn, 

 and leaves the sky clearer during the night, only now and then 

 flecked with dark clouds floating over from the land. Without 

 these floating clouds the land-breeze is feeble. When the clouds 

 float away from the sea, the land-breeze does not go far out from 

 the coast, or is wholly replaced by the sea-breeze, or, rather, by 

 the trade- wind. If the land-breeze continues, then the stars loom 

 forth, as if to free themselves from the dark vault of the heavens, 

 but their light does not wholly vanquish its deep blue, though 

 the dark flecking of clouds comes out more distinctly near the 

 Southern Cross, which smiles consolingly upon us, while Scorpio, 

 the emblem of the tropical climate, stands like a warning in the 

 heavens. The starlight, which is reflected by the mirrored waters, 

 causes the nights to vie in clearness with the early twilight in 

 high latitudes. Numerous shooting stars weary the eye, although 

 they break the monotony of the sparkling firmament. Their un- 

 ceasing motion in the unfathomable ocean affords a great contrast 

 to the seeming quiet of the gently-flowing aerial current of the 

 land-breeze. But at times, when, 30° or 40° above the horizon, 

 a fire-ball arises which suddenly illumines the whole horizon, ap- 



* In the roads of Batavia, liowever, tliey are not very agreeable. — Jansen. 



