Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 3 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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Towards Night The Sea Was Covered
With Great Bluish Clouds; And When They Disappeared We Saw, At An
Immense Height, Fleecy Clouds In Regular Spaces, And Ranged In
Convergent Bands.
Their direction was from north-north-west to
south-south-east, or more exactly, north 20 degrees west, consequently
contrary to the direction of the magnetic meridian.
On the 24th March we entered the gulf which is bounded on the east by
the coast of Santa Marta, and on the west by Costa Rica; for the mouth
of the Magdalena and that of the Rio San Juan de Nicaragua are on the
same parallel, nearly 11 degrees latitude. The proximity of the
Pacific Ocean, the configuration of the neighbouring lands, the
smallness of the isthmus of Panama, the lowering of the soil between
the gulf of Papagayo and the port of San Juan de Nicaragua, the
vicinity of the snowy mountains of Santa Marta, and many other
circumstances too numerous to mention, combine to create a peculiar
climate in this gulf. The atmosphere is agitated by violent gales
known in winter by the name of the brizotes de Santa Marta. When the
wind abates, the currents bear to north-east, and the conflict between
the slight breezes (from east and north-east) and the current renders
the sea rough and agitated. In calm weather, the vessels going from
Carthagena to Rio Sinu, at the mouth of the Atrato and at Portobello,
are impeded in their course by the currents of the coast.
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