ATMOSPHERE.
by a copious dew. I am therefore inclined to believe, that a heavy
fall o f dew, cannot any longer1 be confideiedas a certain or infallible
fign o f the neighbourhood of. lands.
Secondly, T h e Tropical illes having been vilited by us at two different
times, viz. once from Auguft to Oftober, in 1773, and again
from March to September, 1774, we can hardly from thence form
an idea o f the changes and the returns o f the feafons, as, each time,
during our whole flay,. the fun was in the Northern hemifphere:
however, i f w e confider that we were at O-Taheitee at the latter
end o f Auguft, and again in April and the beginning o f May, and
that we found, a very material difference in the external, appearance
o f vegetation,, we may be allowed to conclude, that this was owing
to the difference o f feafons; for, in countries, between the tropics,
Nature feems to be more uniform and conftant in the fetting
ip o f winds and rains, than without the tropics. Th e difference
was too ftriking not to be noticed 4 and, i f it were not caufed by
the natural return o f the feafons, it muft have been produced by a
very extraordinary deviation from the uniform tenor o f the changes
produced within the tropics ; which may be poftible, but hardly
probable.
Th e hills, in O-Taheitee. were covered in Auguft with dry and
dead herbage, a great- part of it had been burnt by the natives, and
gave the country 3. barren and dreary. look. Th e idle- had very
1 little
little bread-fruit, few or no apples, and the bannanas were fcarce :
and i f we except the eddoes, the greater part o f vegetables were
but moderately plentiful, and hogs fcarcely to be had at all. But when
we arrived eight months after, in April, the hills as far as their very
fummits, were clad with the moft agreeable verdure; the trees on
the plains were bending under the weight o f bread-fruit; in the
valleys the largeft apple-trees were loaded with their excellent fruit;
all the fhores fringed by innumerable coco-nut trees, offered a vaft
profufion o f thefe ufeful nuts; nay the valleys between the higher
hills, were entirely covered with immenfe clufters o f the horfe-
plantain, while each cottage was furrounded with confiderable plantain
walks o f the better fort, richly providing a more delicious
food: we obtained in a little time a great quantity of large and well
tailed hogs from the natives, and faw every where, more left. This
fo material difference was, in my opinion, caufed by the natural
change o f feafons. When we came there the laft time, the fun
had then juft left the Southern hemifphere; and it has been generally
obferved, that wherever the fun is vertical within the tropics,
there its powerful beams accelerate the riling of the vapours, and
caufe a profufion o f rain; which together with the vivifying influence
of the fun, of.courfe refrefhes and quickens vegetation, in-
fofes new life in all the animated part of nature, ■ and produces
plenty every where, ,
ATMOSPHERE.
P But