Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 3 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
- Page 310 of 635 - First - Home
The Temperature Of
Rain-Water, To Which I Devoted Much Attention During My Travels, Has
Become A More Important Problem
Since M. Boisgiraud, Professor of
Experimental Philosophy at Poitiers, has proved that in Europe rain is
generally sufficiently cold, relatively
To the air, to cause
precipitation of vapour at the surface of every drop. From this fact
he traces the cause of the unequal quantity of rain collected at
different heights. When we recollect that one degree only of cooling
precipitates more water in the hot climate of the tropics, than by a
temperature of 10 to 13 degrees, we may cease to be surprised at the
enormous size of the drops of rain that fall at Cumana, Carthagena and
Guayaquil.)
Our passage from the island of Cuba to the coast of South America
terminated at the mouth of the Rio Sinu, and it occupied sixteen days.
The roadstead near the Punta del Zapote afforded very bad anchorage;
and in a rough sea, and with a violent wind, we found some difficulty
in reaching the coast in our canoe. Everything denoted that we had
entered a wild region rarely visited by strangers. A few scattered
houses form the village of Zapote: we found a great number of mariners
assembled under a sort of shed, all men of colour, who had descended
the Rio Sinu in their barks, to carry maize, bananas, poultry and
other provisions to the port of Carthagena. These barks, which are
from fifty to eighty feet long, belong for the most part to the
planters (haciendados) of Lorica.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 310 of 635
Words from 84628 to 84888
of 174507
