42 
POUTER’S JOURNAL, 
Thomas Carroll, chronic rheumatism 
Midshipman Tittermary, abscess of the knee. 
As some of our people had, contrary to orders, sold their 
clothes (at Port Praya), and as we had not a very large supply of 
summer clothing on board, (as well with a view of punishing 
them, as to make our supply hold out,) I did not until now permit 
their summer clothes to be issued. 
The oppressive heat here is, I presume, occasioned by the 
coast of Brazils, which runs at right angles with the direction of 
the trades, and occasions an interruption of their course, as it is 
well known, that winds never blow home (as seamen term it) on 
a high coast; added to this, the land breezes which blow off at 
night break in on the regularity of the current of air, and pro- 
duce the light and bathing winds and calms that we have ex¬ 
perienced in this place. 
From the accounts I have received from several persons on 
board, who have been trading on this coast, it appears, that the 
land breezes blow very regularly at night, and extend to a consi¬ 
derable distance to sea, and serve to favour the passage of vessels 
bound from St. Salvadore and other ports to the northward, as 
they stand off shore with the land until they meet the sea breeze, 
which enables them to make a considerable slant to the north¬ 
ward. 
We, however, were too far off shore to feel the land breeze, 
but not too far to experience its effects. 
The land breezes may owe their existence to the following 
cause. The action of the sun produces, in the day, by rarefying 
the air, a considerable elevation of the atmosphere, and where the 
sun’s rays are strongest the greater elevation is produced; between 
the tropics, but more particularly under the sun, this effect is 
most observable, and where the sun’s rays are reflected back by the 
land, the effect is still more heightened. When the cause of this 
extreme elevation ceases, when the sun has set, a general fall of 
the atmosphere takes place, like water returning to its level to 
restore the equilibrium; in its fall, should it meet with high land 
or mountains, it follows the obliquity of their sides, rushing in 
torrents down through the valleys until it is borne off to the sea. 
