CLIMATE. 



153 



near the limits of the torrid zone that characterizes 

 the regions nearer the equator (between 0° and 10° 

 of north and south latitude) ; a thermometer which 

 had been observed in Paris at 38°. 4 (101° F.), does 

 not rise at Cumana above 33° (91°. 4 F.) ; at Yera 

 Cruz it has touched 32° (89°.6 F.), but once in 

 thirteen years. At Havana, during three years, 

 (1810-1812), Senor Ferrer found it to oscillate only 

 between 16° and 30° (61° and 86° F.). SeHor 

 Eobredo, in his manuscript notes, which I have in 

 my possession, cites as a notable event that the 

 temperature in 1801 rose to 34r°.4 (94° F.), while in 

 Paris, according to the interesting investigations of 

 Mons. Arago, the extremes of temperature between 

 36°.7 and 38° (97°.9 and 100°.4: F.) have been 

 reached four times in ten years, (1793-1803.) 



The great proximity of the days on which the sun 

 passes the zenith of those places situate near the 

 limit of the torrid zone, makes the heat at times 

 very intense upon the coast of Cuba, and in all those 

 places comprised between the parallels of 20° and 

 23^°, not so much as regards entire months as for a 

 term of a few days. In ordinary years the thermo- 

 meter never rises in August above 28° or 30°^ O. 

 (82°.4 or 86° F.), and I have known the inhabi- 

 tants complain of excessive heat when it rose to 31° 

 C. (87°.S F.) 



7* 



