30 



Firrna, which we began to coast. This position 

 seems to prove the influence of local causes on 

 meteors, the nature of which is not yet suffi- 

 ciently known to us. 



The 14th at sunrise, we were in sight of the 

 Bocca-del-Drago. We distinguished the island 

 Chacachacarreo, the most westerly of thAse 

 islands which are placed between Cape Paria 

 and the north-west cape of Trinidad. When we 

 were five leagues distant from the coast, we felt, 

 near Punta de la Baca, the effect of a particular 

 current, which drew the ship toward the south. 

 The motion of the waters which* flow through the 

 Bocca-del-Drago, and the action of the tides, 

 occasion an eddy. We hove the lead, and 

 found from thirty-six to forty-three fathoms on 

 a bottom of very fine green clay. According to 

 the rules established by Dampier*, we ought 

 not to have expected so little depth near a coast 

 formed by very high and perpendicular moun- 

 tains. We continued to heave the lead till we 

 reached Cabo de tres Punt as, and we every where 

 found shallow water, apparently indicating the 

 prolongation of the ancient coast. In these la- 

 titudes the temperature of the sea was twenty- 

 three or twenty-four degrees, consequently from 

 1"5 to two degrees less than in the open ocean, 

 beyond the edges of the bank. 



Cape Three Points, the name given to it by 



* Voyage round the World, vol. ii, p. 476. » 



