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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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.
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