187 



ing over what the Spanish and Portuguese au- 

 thors relate respecting the existence of the fabu- 

 lous isle of San Borondon, or Antilia, we find, 

 that it is particularly the humid wind of the 

 west-south-west, which produces in these lati- 

 tudes the phenomena of the mirage. We shall 

 not however admit with Mr. Vieyra, " that the 

 play of the terrestrial refractions *, may render 

 visible to the inhabitants of the Canaries the is- 

 lands of Cape Verd, and even the Apalachian 

 Mountains of America." 



The cold, which we felt on the top of the Peak, 

 was very considerable for the season. The centi- 

 grade thermometer at a distance from the 

 ground, and from the apertures that emitted the 

 hot vapors, descended in the shade to 2*7°. The 

 wind was west, and consequently opposite to 



* " La refraction da para todo." Noticias historicas, t. i, 

 p. 105. We have already stated, that the American fruits, 

 frequently thrown by the sea on the coasts of the isles of Ferro 

 and Gomera, were formerly attributed to the plants of the 

 island of San Borondon. This land, said by the people to be 

 governed by an archbishop and six bishops, and which Father 

 Feijoo believed to be the image of the isle of Ferro, reflected 

 on a fog bank, was ceded in the 16th century, by the king of 

 Portugal, to Lewis Perdigon, at the time the latter was pre- 

 paring to make the conquest of it. 



t Messrs. O'Donnel and Armstrong observed the 2d of 

 August, 1806, at eight in the morning, on the top of the 

 Peak, the thermometer in the shade at 13*8°, and in the sun 

 at 20*5°. Difference or power of the sun 6'7 centesimal de- 

 grees. 



