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190 TRAVELS IN 
with their brilliant colors of red, yellow, and filky white. 
The Dutch in the colony name thefe, Jiowers of /even years' 
duration ; but in Europe we extend the idea to everlajltngs. 
In two days after leaving the mouth of the river, and fkirting 
its banks, we came to the firft ford. The moment we began 
to defcend the heights towards the level of the river an extraor- 
dinary increafe of temperature was felt ; and in the courfe of 
an hour the thermometer, which ftood at noon at 72°, had 
afcended to 102° in the fhade, at which point it remained, at 
the ford of the river, for four hours. When expofed to the 
direct rays of the fun the temperature was increafed only four 
degrees. The wind was due north and remarkably ftrong ; 
and the ftream of air was fo heated that it was fcarcely pofTible 
to bear expofure to it for any length of time. At night it blew 
a hurricane, and obliged us to ftrike the tents. It may be re- 
marked that the meridian altitude of the fun on that day was 
only fifty-one degrees, and that the general furface of the coun- 
try, from which the wind blew, was covered with thick fhrub- 
bery ; that on the preceding night, near the fame place, the 
thermometer was down to 52° ; and that on the following day, 
on the fame fpot, and with the fame wind, but lefs ftrong, it 
afcended no higher than 71". Thefe circumftances render it 
very difficult, if not impoffible, to account for fo high a degree 
of temperature. 
The following day we pafTed the Great Fifti river, though 
not without fome difficulty, the banks being high and fteep, the 
ftream ftrong, the bottom rocky, and the water deep. Some 
fine 
