while, upon the sea, small fishing-boats loom up like large vessels,[1] The seaman, drifting along the coast, and misled by the increasing clearness and mirage, believes that he has been driven by a current towards the land; he casts the lead, and looks anxiously out for the sea breeze, in order to escape from what he believes to be threatening danger. The planks burn under his feet; in vain he spreads the awning to shelter himself from the broiling sun. Its rays are oppressive; repose does not refresh; motion is not agreeable. The inhabitants of the deep, awakened by the clear light of day, prepare themselves for labour. Corals, and thousands of Crustacea, await, perhaps impatiently, the coming of the sea breeze, which shall cause evaporation to take place more rapidly, and thus provide them with a bountiful store of building material for their picturesque and artfully constructed dwellings: these they know how to paint and to polish in the depths of the sea more beautifully than can be accomplished by any human art. Like them, also, the plants of the sea are dependent upon the winds, upon the clouds, and upon the sunshine: for upon these depend the vapour and the rains which feed the streams that bring nourishment for them into the sea.[2]When the sun reaches the zenith, and his stern eye, with burning glare, is turned more and more upon the Java Sea, the air seems to fall into a magnetic sleep; yet even as the magnetizer exercises his will upon his subject, and the latter, with uncertain and changeable gestures, gradually puts himself in motion, and sleeping obeys that will, so also we see the slow efforts of the sea breeze to repress the vertical movements of the air, and to obey the will which calls it to the land. This vertical movement appears to be not easily overcome by the horizontal which we call wind. Yonder, far out upon the sea, arises and disappears alternately a darker tint upon the otherwise shining sea-carpet; finally that tint remains and approaches; that is the long-wished-for sea breeze: and yet it is sometimes one, yes, even two hours before the darker tint is permanent, before the
- ↑ Especially in the rainy season the land looms very greatly; then we see mountains which are from 5000 to 6000 feet high at a distance of 80 or 100 English miles.
- ↑ The archipelago of coral islands on the north side of the Straits of Sunda is remarkable. Before the salt water flowed from the Straits it was deprived of the solid matter of which the Thousand Islands are constructed. A similar group of islands is found between the Straits of Macassar and Balié.—Jansen.
