MADEIRA. 3 
scribe at without making any comment. The Admiral took 
up a small flask of salt water in the Atlantic Ocean, near Cape 
Saint V'incent, which weighed 22oz. 5dvs. The same quan- 
tity, in bulk, of salt water taken up by him iii the Mediter- 
ranean near Minorca, was found to be 13 grains heavier. 
Two decanters were afterwards filled, one with fresh, tlie other 
with salt water, their specific gravities differing in the above 
proportion, and the fresh water tinged with red colouring 
matter. The decanters being placed horizontally, and their 
necks closely luted, a gradual interchange of their contents 
was observed to take place, the fresii and coloured water 
making its way through the upper, and the salt water in a 
contrary direction through the lower, part of the necks; being 
a just representation of the upper and under currents, which 
are supposed to flow in contrary directions through tlie 
strait of Gibraltar. 
Welcome as tlie sight of land must always be after a sea- 
voyage, it "will be doubly so to the passenger who, for the 
first time, has been buffetted by the billows of the Bay of 
Biscay. Yet the appearance of the mountainous island of 
Madeira, enveloped, as it usually is, in the obscurity of a 
dense cloud, is far from being inviting. So rarely indeed is 
its gloomy mantle drawn aside, that when Gonsalez Zarco 
discovered the island of Porto Santo, though at the distance 
only of 40 miles from Madeira, he remained at the former 
for a length of time, without even conjecturing that the latter 
might be habitable land. He and his people had observed 
with marked attention the thick black cloud hoverins; con- 
stantly over the same spot of the horizon ; an appearance 
B 2 
