150 



humboldt's cuba. 



CHAPTER III. 



CLIMATE. 



General remarks— Mean temperature— Means of heat and cold- 

 Summer solstice — Peculiarities of winter — Compared with Macao 

 and Rio Janeiro — Fires not needed — Hail — General remarks 

 — Anomalies of vegetation — The pine of Cuba — Identity with that 

 of Mexico — Temperature in the interior and at Havana — Compari- 

 son with Cumana— Ice — Snow never seen in Cuba — Sudden changes 

 at Havana — Internal heat of the earth — Oscillations of thermome- 

 ter and barometer connected — Barometrical altitudes — Hurricanes. 

 — [Note. — Hurricanes of 1844 and 1845 — Rain gauge and Hygro- 

 meter — Atmospherical phenomena — Cloudy and fair days — Effect 

 of climate on vegetation.] 



The climate of Havana is that which corresponds 

 to the extreme limit of the torrid zone ; it is a tropical 

 climate, in which the unequal distribution of heat 

 through the various seasons of the year presages the 

 transition to the climates of the temperate zone. 



Calcutta (EST. lat. 22° 34'), Canton (ST. lat. 23° 8'), 

 Macao (K lat. 22° 12'), Havana (1ST. lat. 23° 9'), and 

 Rio Janeiro (S. lat. 22° 54'), are places whose 

 location at the level of the ocean and near the 

 tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, being equi-dis- 



