CLOUDY ATMOSPHERE. 
273 
a rving our plants, and sketching those that appeared to form 
new genera. Unfortunately the misty atmosphere of a valley, 
where the surrounding forests fill the air with an enormous 
quantity of vapour, was unfavourable to astronomical obser- 
vations. I spent a part of the nights waiting to take 
advantage of the moment when some star should be visible 
between the clouds, near its passage over the meridian. I 
often shivered with cold, though the thermometer only sunk 
to 16°, which is the temperature of the day in our climates 
towards the end of September. The instruments remained 
set up in the court of the convent for several hours, yet I 
was almost always disappointed in my expectations. Some 
good observations of 1- omalhaut and of Deneb have given 
10° 10' 14" as the latitude of Caripc ; which proves that the 
position indicated in the maps of CauLin is IS' wrong, and in 
that of Arrowsmith 14'. 
Observations of corresponding altitudes of the sun having 
given me the true time, within about 2", I was enabled to 
determine the magnetic variation with precision, at noon. 
It was, on the 20th of September, 1799, 3° 15' 30" north-east; 
consequently 0° 58' 15" less than at Cumana. If we attend 
to the influence of the horary variations, which in these 
countries do not in general exceed 8', we shall find, that at 
considerable distances the variation changes less rapidly than 
is usually supposed. The dip of the needle was 42-75°, cen- 
tesimal division, and the number of oscillations, expressing the 
intensity of the magnetic forces, rose to 229 in ten minutes. 
The vexation of seeing the stars disappear in a misty skv 
was the only disappointment we felt in the valley of Caripe. 
The aspect of this spot presents a character at once wild and 
tranquil, gloomy and attractive. In the solitude of these 
mountains we are perhaps less struck by the new impressions 
we receive at every step, than with the marks of resemblance 
we trace in climates the most remote from each other. The 
hills by which the convent is backed, are crowned with palm- 
trees and arborescent ferns. In the evenings, when the sky 
denotes rain, the air resounds with the monotonous how-ling 
ot the alouate apes, which resembles the distant sound of 
wind when it shakes the forest. Yet amid these strange 
sounds, these wild forms of plants, and these prodigies of a 
new- world, nature everywhere speaks to man in a voice 
VOL. I. T 
