176 



the shores of which were peopled with alcatras # , 

 egrets, and flamingoes. The splendor of the 

 day, the vivid color of the vegetable world, 

 the forms of the plants, the varied plumage of 

 the birds, every thing announced the grand 

 aspect of nature in the equinoctial regions. . 



The city of Cumana, the capital of New An- 

 dalusia, is a mile distant from the embarcadere, 

 or the battery of the Bocca, where we landed, 

 after having passed the bar of the Manzanares. 

 We had to cross a vast plain which divides 

 the suburb of the Guayquerias from the seacoast. 

 The excessive heat of the atmosphere was aug- 

 mented by the reverberation of the soil, partly 

 stripped of vegetation. The centigrade thermo- 

 meter, plunged into the white sand, rose to 

 37*7°. In the small pools of salt water it kept 

 at 30*5°, while the heat of the ocean, at it's sur- 

 face, is generally in the port of Cumana^ from 



* Brown pelican of the size of a swan. BufFon, pi. eulum 

 No. 957, Pelicanus fuscus, Lin. (Oviedo, lib. xiv, c. 6.) 

 f El Salado. 



X On comparing a great number of experiments made in 

 1799 and 1800, at different seasons, I find, that in the port 

 of Cumana, to the north of Cerro Colorado, the sea during 

 the ebb, is 0 8° warmer than during the flow, whatever be the 

 hour of the tide. I shall here give the observations of the 

 20th of October, which may almost serve as a type, and 

 which were made on a point of the coast, where the sea at 

 150 toises distance was 30 or 40 fathoms deep. At ten in 

 the morning, ebb 26\L° j air near the xjoast 27 4° j air near 



