Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 2 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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These Oscillations From Positive To Negative Were Often
Repeated.
Yet the electrometer constantly denoted, a little before the
lightning, only E., or positive E., and never negative E. Towards the
end of the storm the west wind blew very strongly.
The clouds
dispersed, and the thermometer sunk to 22 degrees on account of the
evaporation from the soil, and the freer radiation towards the sky.
I have entered into these details on the electric charge of the
atmosphere because travellers in general confine themselves to the
description of the impressions produced on a European newly arrived by
the solemn spectacle of a tropical storm. In a country where the year
is divided into great seasons of drought and wet, or, as the Indians
say in their expressive language, of sun* (* In the Maypure dialect
camoti, properly the heat [of the sun]. The Tamanacs call the season
of drought uamu, the time of grasshoppers.) and rain* (* In the
Tamanac language canepo. The year is designated, among several
nations, by the name of one of the two seasons. The Maypures say, so
many suns, (or rather so many heats;) the Tamanacs, so many rains.),
it is highly interesting to follow the progress of meteorological
phenomena in the transition from one season to another. We had already
observed, in the valleys of Aragua from the 18th and 19th of February,
clouds forming at the commencement of the night. In the beginning of
the month of March the accumulation of the vesicular vapours, visible
to the eye, and with them signs of atmospheric electricity, augmented
daily. We saw flashes of heat-lightning to the south; and the
electrometer of Volta constantly displayed, at sunset, positive
electricity. The pith balls, unexcited during the day, separated to
the width of three or four lines at the commencement of the night,
which is triple what I generally observed in Europe, with the same
instrument, in calm weather. Upon the whole, from the 26th of May, the
electrical equilibrium of the atmosphere seemed disturbed. During
whole hours the electricity was nil, then it became very strong, and
soon after was again imperceptible. The hygrometer of Deluc continued
to indicate great dryness (from 33 to 35 degrees), and yet the
atmosphere appeared no longer the same. Amidst these perpetual
variations of the electric state of the air, the trees, divested of
their foliage, already began to unfold new leaves, and seemed to feel
the approach of spring.
The variations which we have just described are not peculiar to one
year. Everything in the equinoctial zone has a wonderful uniformity of
succession, because the active powers of nature limit and balance each
other, according to laws that are easily recognized. I shall here note
the progress of atmospherical phenomena in the islands to the east of
the Cordilleras of Merida and of New Grenada, in the Llanos of
Venezuela and the Rio Meta, from four to ten degrees of north
latitude, wherever the rains are constant from May to October, and
comprehending consequently the periods of the greatest heats, which
occur in July and August.* (* The maximum of the heat is not felt on
the coast, at Cumana, at La Guayra, and in the neighbouring island of
Margareta, before the month of September; and the rains, if the name
can be given to a few drops that fall at intervals, are observed only
in the months of October and November.)
Nothing can equal the clearness of the atmosphere from the month of
December to that of February.
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