ITS AVERAGE TEJIPERATUllE. 
17 ;^ 
iTararaiali; and to prove by an exact comparison witli 
other points alike distant from the equator, for instance, 
with Eio Janeiro and Macao, that the lowering of tem- 
perature obscn^ed in the island of Cuba is owing to 
the irriiiition, and the stream of layers of cold air, borne 
from the temperate zones towards the tropics ot Cancer 
and Capricorn. The mean temperature of the Havauuah, 
according to four years of good observations, is 2o’7 
(20-6° E.), only 2® cent, above that of the regions of 
America nearest the equator. The proximity of the sea 
raises the mean temperature of the year on the coast ; but 
in the interior of the island, when the north winds penetrate 
with the same force, and where the soil rises to the height 
of fortv toises, the mean temperature attains only 
(18-4° E.), and does not exceed that of Cairo and liower 
Egypt. The difference between the mean temperature of 
tf/Utestniid coldest montlis, risp to 12® in the interior 
of the island; at the Ilavannah, and on the coast, to 8 ; at 
Cumana, to scarcely 3°. The hottest months, July and 
August, attain 28-8°, at the island of Cuba, perhaps 29'5 
of mean temperature, as at tlie equator. The coldest months 
are December and January ; their mean temperature, in the 
interior of the island, is 17® ; at the Havauuah, 21 , that is^ 
5° to 8" below the same months at the equator, yet stiff 6 
above the hottest month at Paris. 
It will be interesting to compare the climate of t e 
Havannah with that of Macao and Eio Janeiro ; two places, 
one of which is near the limit of the northern torrid zone, 
on the eastern coast of Asia; and the other on the eastern 
coast of America, towards the extremitjNof the southern 
The^'diraate of the Havannah, notwithstanding the fre- 
quency of the north and north-west winds, is hotter than 
fimt of Macao and Eio Janeiro. The former partakes of 
file cold which, owing to the frequency of the west winds, 
is felt in winter along all the eastern coast of a great con- 
tinent. The proximity of spaces of land, covered w itli 
niountains and table-lands, renders the distribution of heat 
in different months of the year, more unequal at Macao 
and Canton, than in an island bounded on the west and 
north by the hot waters of the Gulf-stream. The wintert 
are therefore much, colder at Canton and Macao than at the 
