107 



mit to each other as a kind of inheritance, there 

 are several that evince great sagacity ; and, in 

 general, prognostics are less uncertain in the 

 basin of the seas, especially in the equinoctial 

 parts of the ocean, than on the continent, where 

 the configuration of the ground, mountains, and 

 plains, interrupts the regularity of the meteoro- 

 logical phenomena. The influence of the luna- 

 tions on the duration of tempests ; the action 

 exercised by the Moon at it's rising, during se- 

 veral successive days, on the dissolution of the 

 clouds ; the intimate connection that exists be- 

 tween the descent of marine barometers and the 

 changes of weather ; and other similar facts ; 

 are scarcely observed in inland countries com- 

 prised in the variable zone, while their reality 

 cannot be denied by those, who have long been 

 in the habit of sailing between the tropics. 



I attempted to apply the cyanometer to mea- 

 sure the color of the sea. Though this color is 

 commonly green, we have no need of a chloro- 

 meter to estimate the intensity of it's tint. In 

 this experiment there is no question but of the 

 strength of the color, of the lighter or deeper 

 shade, and not of the individual nature or qua- 

 lity of the tint. In fine calm weather the color 

 of the ocean has been equal to the thirty-third, 

 the thirty-eighth, sometimes even the forty- fourth 

 degree of the cyanometer ; though the vault of 

 the sky was very pale, and scarcely reached the 



2 D 



