402 



22° on account of the evaporation from the soil, 

 and the freer radiation toward the sky. 



I have entered into these details on the elec- 

 tric charge of the atmosphere, because travellers 

 in general have confined themselves to the de- 

 scription of the impressions produced on a Eu- 

 ropean newly arrived by the solemn spectacle of 

 a tropical storm. In a country, where the year 

 is divided into two great seasons of drought and 

 wet, or, as the Indians say in their expressive 

 language, of Sun # and rain -f~, it is highly inte- 

 resting to follow the progress of meteorological 

 phenomena in the transition from one season to 

 another. We had already observed in the val- 

 leys of Aragua, from the 18th and 19th of Feb- 

 ruary, clouds forming at the commencement of 

 the night. In the beginning of the month of 

 March, the accumulation of the vesicular va- 

 pours, visible to the eye, and with them signs of 

 atmospheric electricity, augmented daily. We 

 saw flashes of heat lightning to the South ; and 

 the electrometer of Volta displayed constantly 

 at sunset vitreous electricity. The separation 



* In May pure ca?noti, properly the respkndant ardor (of 

 the Sun). The Tamanacs call the season of drought ua?nu, 

 the, time of grasshoppers. 



+ In the Tamanac language canepo. The year is desig- 

 nated, among several nations, by the name of one of the two 

 seasons. The Maypures say, so many Suns (or rather so mavyt 

 ardors of the Sun) ; the Tamanacs, so many rains. 



