325 



but very commercial town, situate in the midst 

 of the Llanos. The aspect of the country was 

 still the same. There was no moonlight ; but 

 the great masses of nebulae, that decorate the 

 southern sky, enlighten, as they set, a part of 

 the terrestrial horizon. The solemn spectacle of 

 the starry vault, which displays itself in it's 

 immense extent ; the cool breeze which blows 

 over the plain during the night; the waving 

 motion of the grass, wherever it has attained any 

 height ; every thing recalled to our minds the 

 surface of the ocean. The illusion above all 

 augments, and we are never weary of telling it, 

 when the disk of the Sun shows itself at the 

 horizon, repeats it's image by the effects ot 

 refraction, and, soon losing it's flattened form, 

 ascends rapidly and straight toward the zenith. 



Sunrise too in the plains is the coolest moment 

 of the day ; but this change of temperature does 

 not make a very lively impression on the organs. 

 We did not find the thermometer in general 

 sink below 27*5° * ; while near Acapulco, at 

 Mexico -f-, in places equally low, the temperature 

 at noon is often 32°, and at sunrise only 1 7° or 

 18°. The level surface of the ground in the 

 Llanos, which, during the day, is never in the 



* 22° Reaumur. 



+ On this extraordinary phenomenon, consult my Essai Pol., 

 vol. ii, p. 760. 



