817 



tremely rough. The thermometer kept up be-* 

 tween 19.2°-20.3o (15.4°-16.2° R.). At this low 

 temperature the smell of the dried meat with 

 which the vessel was laden, became still more 

 insupportable. The sky displayed two beds of 

 clouds, the lower was thick and pushed with 

 extreme rapidity towards the S.E., the upper 

 motionless, and divided at equal distance, in 

 the form of feathered stripes. The wind at 

 length was calmed on nearing cape Saint 

 Antoine. I found the northern extremity of 

 the cape 87° 17' 22", or 2° 34' 14" eastward of 

 the Morro of the Havannah : this is the longi- 

 tude now marked on the best maps. We were 

 at the distance of three miles from land, but 

 the proximity of the island of Cuba was an- 

 nounced by a delicious aromatic odour. The 

 sailors pretend that this odour is not perceived 

 when they approach from cape Catoche, on the 

 barren coast of Mexico. As the weather grew 

 clearer, the thermometer rose gradually in the 

 shade to 27° : we advanced rapidly towards the 

 north, pushed on by a current # from south- 

 south-east, of which the temperature rose at 

 the surface of the water, to 26.7° ; while out of 



* Diego Columbus had very precise ideas on the exist- 

 ence and the direction of the Gulf-stream ; see Petrus Mart 

 tyr, Ocean, Dec. 3. Lib. x, p. 326, 327, and Herera, Dec. 1, 

 Lib. ix, p. 251. 



VOL. VI. 3 H 



