461 



quantity of heat developed in each place dur- 

 ing the course of a whole year ; and that it ex- 

 tends by no means to the climate, that is, 

 to the distribution of heat in the various sea- 

 sons. 



At Caraccas the heat very seldom rises for a 

 few hours in summer to 29° *. It is asserted, 

 that, a little before the rising* of the Sun, it has 

 been seen to fall in winter as low as 11° 

 During my stay at Caraccas, the maximum 

 and minimum observed were only 25° and 12 5°. 

 The cold at night is the more intense, from 

 being usually accompanied with a misty sky. 

 I have been unable for whole weeks, to take 

 the altitudes of the Sun, or of the stars. I often 

 found the transition from the purest transpa- 

 rent air to complete obscurity so sudden that, 

 when I had my eye fixed on a satellite through 

 the glass a minute before it's immersion, I not 

 only lost sight of the planet, but of all the ob- 

 jects close round me, in a mist. Under the 

 temperate zone in Europe, the temperature is 

 more uniform on the high mountains, than in 

 the plains. At the Hospital of St. Gothard, 

 for instance, the difference between the mean 

 temperature of the warmest and coldest months 

 is 17*3°; while, under the same parallel, nearly 



* 23 2o R, 

 f 8-8° R, 



