(1008)
Lizard Variation, 1. 4′. West. The Wind was at N W. till 4. p. m; then it came to West with a thick sky and cold rain. At 8. to WSW. At 3. in the morning to S W, and at 6. to SSW. At 9° the next day to south; all strong winds.
June 22. dark and cloudy. At 2. of the clock the wind came to SSE. At 4, to ESE. At 10, to East, and there continued till the 24th in the morning; which all accounted very strange.
June 24. in the morning it fell calm, and was pretty warm, having been bitter cold the last 10. days.* * This observation of the bitter Cold in the Southern Latit. of between 35. and 36. degrees may be referred to those related by Mr. Boyle in his Experimentall History of Cols p. 491: whence he raiseth this Note: That the greater or lesser Coldness of the Air in several Climates and Countrys is nothing near so regularly proportioned to their respective distances from the Pole. or their Vicinity to the Æquator, as men are wont to presume. At 3 a clock in the night a fresh gale at NNW.
June 25. Latit. 36, 10′, Longit. 21. 15′. Variation 3. 40′. West. Fair weather Wind NNW
June 26. A clear day. Wind NNW. Variation 4. 30′.
June 27. in the morning calm about 9, wind and rain out of the SW. At night calm and fair.
June 28. A fair day, and most part calm; for we failed but 17. miles in 24. houres. At 10. at night, heaving the Lead we had ground 130. fathoms. the sand like Calais-sand. The Variation was 7. 10′. This was off Cape Agulhas, the most Southerly Land or all Africa, lying 90. miles ESE. from the Cape of Good Hope.
In our latter Voyage, after we came to 32. degr. South. Latitude (to which the place from the Line we were much becalmed) we had fair weather, and a constant Wind between W N W and W S W. all along to the Cape (and so it was most commonly;) and I have therefore noted the weather in the former Voyage, because it was un-usuall; in that vast space between Rio de la Plata and the Cape the wind being all the year Westerly. But about the Cape from the end or middle of September to the beginning of April, the winds are variable as in England. The rest of the year they are Westerly, and intolerable storms.
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