413 



We have here discussed one of the most im- 

 portant phenomena of the meteorology of the 

 tropics, considered in it's most general view. 

 In the same manner as the limits of the trade- 

 winds do not form circles parallel to the equa- 

 tor*, the action of the polar currents is variously 

 felt under different meridians. The chains of 

 mountains and the coasts in the same hemis- 

 phere have often opposite seasons. We shall 

 hereafter have occasion to notice several ex- 

 amples of these anomalies ; but, in order to dis- 

 cover the laws of nature, we must know before 

 we examine into the causes of local perturba- 

 tions, the mean state of the atmosphere, and the 

 constant type of it's variations. 



The aspect of the sky, the progress of the 

 electricity, and the shower of the 28th of March, 

 announced the commencement of the rainy sea- 

 son ; we were still advised however, to go from 

 San Fernando de Apure by San Francisco de 

 Capanaparo, the Rio Sinaruco, and the Hato de 

 San Antonio, to the village of the Otomacks, 

 recently founded near the banks of the Meta, 

 and to embark on the Oroonoko a little above 

 Carichana. This tvay by land lies across an un- 

 healthy and feverous country. An old farmer, 

 Don Francisco Sanchez, obligingly offered to 



* See above, vol. ii, p. 3 and 72 ; and my Memoire sur Us 

 lignet isothermes, p. 114. 



