504 



entertained some hope of reaching the eastern 

 summit of the Silla before sunset, and of re- 

 descending into the vale, separating the two 

 peaks, intending there to pass the night, to 

 light a great fire, and make our Negroes con- 

 struct a hut with the large and thin leaves of 

 heliconia. We sent off half of our servants, 

 with orders to hasten the next morning to meet 

 us, not with olives, but salt beef. 



We had scarcely made these arrangements, 

 when the east wind began to blow violently 

 from the sea-side. The thermometer rose to 

 12*5°. It was no doubt an ascending wind, 

 which by augmenting the temperature dissolved 

 the vapours. In less than two minutes the 

 clouds disappeared, and the two domes of the 

 Silla appeared to us singularly near. We opened 

 the barometer in the lowest part of the hollow 

 that separates the two summits, near a little 

 pool of very muddy water. Here, as in the 

 West India islands % marshy plains are found 

 at great elevations ; not because the woody 

 mountains attract the clouds, but because they 

 condense the vapours by the effect of nocturnal 

 refrigeration, occasioned by the radiation of 

 heat from the ground, and from the parenchy- 

 ma of the leaves. The mercury was at 21 

 inches 5*7 lines. We took our course right 



* Leblond, Voy* aux Antilles, Tom. i, p. 420. 



