412 



Sun is lower.* The continuation of the rains, 

 while the bendavales blow, proves, that the cur- 

 rents from the remoter pole do not act in the 

 northern equinoctial zone like the currents of 

 the nearer pole, on account of the greater hu- 

 * midity of the southern polar current. The air, 

 wafted by this current, comes from a hemisphere 

 consisting almost entirely of water. It traverses 

 all the southern equatorial zone to reach the 

 parallel of 8° of North latitude ; and is conse- 

 quently less dry, less cold, less adapted to act 

 as a counter-current, to renew the equinoctial 

 air, and prevent it's saturation, than the northern 

 polar current, or the breeze from the North- 

 East -f*. We may suppose, that the bendavales 

 are inpetuous winds on some coasts, for instance 

 on that of Guatimala, because they are not the 

 effect of a regular and progressive descent of the 

 air of the tropics toward the South pole, but 

 alternate with calms, are accompanied by elec- 

 trical explosions, and are real squalls, that indi- 

 cate a reflux, an abrupt and instantaneous rup- 

 ture of equilibrium in the aerial ocean. 



* From the equator to 10® of North lat., the mean tempe- 

 ratures of the summer and winter months scarcely differ 2° 

 or 3°; but at the limits of the torrid zone, toward the tropic 

 of Cancer, the difference amounts to 8° or 9°. 



+ In the two temperate zones, the air loses it's transparency 

 every time that the wind blows from the heteronymous pole, 

 that is to say, from the pole that has not the same denomina- 

 tion as the hemisphere where the wind blows. 



