100 CLIMATE OF CARIPE.. 
the superior, they found among other books the 
Traité d’Electricité by the Abbé Nollet, and one of 
the monks had brought with him a Spanish transla- 
tion of Chaptal’s Treatise on Chemistry. 
The height of this monastery above the sea is 
nearly the same as that of Caraccas and the in- 
habited parts of the Blue Mountains of Jamaica. 
The thermometer was between 60°8° and 63° at 
midnight, between 66-2° and 68° in the morning, 
and only 69°8° or 72°5° about one o'clock. The 
mean temperature, inferred from that of the month 
of September, appears to be 65°3°. This degree 
of heat is sufficient to develop the productions of 
the torrid zone, although much inferior to-that of 
the plains of Cumana. Water exposed in vessels of 
porous clay cools during the night as low as 55:4°. 
The mild climate and rarefied air of this place have 
been found highly favourable to the cultivation of 
coffee, which was introduced into the province by 
the prefect of the Capuchins, an active and enlight- 
ened man. In the garden of the community were 
many culinary vegetables, maize, the sugar-cane, 
and five thousand coffee-trees. 
The greatest curiosity in this beautiful and salu- 
brious district is a cavern inhabited by nocturnal 
birds, the fat of which is employed in the missions 
for dressing food. It is named the Cave of Gua- 
charo, and is situated in a valley three leagues dis- 
tant from the convent. 
On the 18th of September our travellers, accom- 
panied by most of the monks and some of the In- 
dians, set out for this aviary, following for an hour 
and a half a narrow path, leading across a fine plain 
covered with beautiful turf; then, turning westward 
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