366 



humboldt's cuba. 



ture, produces from ten in the morning until four in 

 the afternoon, all the varied phenomena of the 

 mirage. In those desert solitudes it is the sun that 

 animates the landscape, giving motion to the objects 

 that glitter under his rays ; the dusty plain, the trunks 

 of trees, and the rocks jutting out into the sea. 

 From the time of his rising these inert masses seem 

 suspended in the air, and the sandy beaches present 

 the deceitful spectacle of a watery plain gently agi- 

 tated by the wind. A shred of cloud suffices to 

 throw down alike, the trunks of trees and the sus- 

 pended rocks, to still the undulating surface of the 

 plain, and to dissipate those charms which the Ara- 

 bian, Persian, and Indian poets, have celebrated in 

 song as " the sweet illusions of the desert soli- 

 tude." 



"We doubled Cape Matahambre very slowly. As 

 the chronometer of Louis Berthoud had kept time 

 well in Havana, I improved the opportunity to deter- 

 mine, on that and the following days, the positions 

 of the Don Cristobal, Flamenco, Diego Perez, and 

 Piedras cays. 1 also found occupation in examining 

 the influence of the varying depth upon the temper- 

 ature of the surface water. Sheltered by so many 

 islets the surface is always calm, as if it were a lake 

 of fresh water ; the strata of different depths do not 



