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as 



quefcenery, and afford a cooling liquor for the inhabitants. Where- 

 the natives of the lower ifles, have no other but coco-nut trees 

 round their habitations^ which thrive well in a fandy foil, and clofe 

 to the fea-fhore often within the reach of the fpray ; and the rain 



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water preferved in deep filthy pits and ponds, full of green, ilimy^ 

 aquatic plants, and ilinking from its ftagnation, is the only refrefh- 

 ing liquor they enjoy after they have been expofed on the reef 



f 



(where they mult refort for the iifhery) to the parching fun and 

 fpray of the feas. Such is the difference 'in the difpenfation of 

 the falutary rains, caufed by the different flirudlure of the illes . 



Though the high hills conftantly attrad the moifture of the 

 clouds and caufe many rains during the whole year, there is how- 

 ever a feafon, when the rains are more copious; and this was jufl: 

 paffed, when we came the fecond time to O-Taheitee ; for all the 

 flreams and rivulets were full cf water, whereas before, they had 

 hardly water enough to moiften the ground. 



The very hills which are the caufe of the fertility and happlnefs 



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-of thefe ides, produce likewife another phaenomenon, viz. as they 

 attrad: the rifmg vapours, and paffing clouds of the atmofphere:, 



the temperature of the air is thereby frequently changed, and con- 



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fequently fudden gufts of winds are produced by this change, vvdth 

 concomitant fqualls of rain; this is an intimation to navigators of 

 the vicinity of land, as we feveral times experienced. We had fqualls 



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and 



107 



ATMO- 

 SPHERE 



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