408 



scarcely inhabited to abore two thousand toises 

 high ; and at this height the proximity of the 

 soil, and the masses of mountains, that form the 

 shoals of the aerial ocean, have a sensible in- 

 fluence on the ambient air. What we observe 

 on the table-land of Antisana is not what we 

 should find at the same height in a balloon, hover- 

 ing over the Llanos or the surface of the ocean. 



We have just seen, that the season of rains 

 and storms in the northern equinoctial zone 

 coincides with the passage of the Sun through 

 the zenith * of the place, with the cessation of 

 the breezes or North-East winds, and with the 

 frequency of calms, and bendavales, which are 

 stormy winds from the South-East and South- 

 West accompanied by a cloudy sky -j*. I believe, 

 that, in reflecting on the general laws of the 

 equilibrium of the gazeous masses that consti- 

 tute our atmosphere, we find, in the interruption 

 of the current that blows from an homonymous 

 pole, in the want of the renewal of air under the 

 torrid zone, and in the continued action of an 

 ascending humid current, a very simple cause 

 of the coincidence of these phenomena. While 

 the breeze from the North-East blows with all 



* These passages take place in the fifth and tenth degrees 

 of North lat., between the 3d and the 16th of April, and be- 

 tween the 27th of August and the 8th of September. 



+ Compare my Essai politique sur la Nouvelle Espagne, vol. ii, 

 p. 382, 712, and 767. 



