water-spout; it was generally not before midnight that the heavens
would gradually clear up, and allow us to admire the beautiful and
dazzling constellations of the South.

The captain told us that this was the fourteenth voyage he had made
to the Brazils, during which time he had always found the heat very
easily borne, and had never seen the sky otherwise than dull and
lowering. He said that this was occasioned by the damp, unhealthy
coast of Guinea, the ill effects of which were perceptible much
further than where we then were, although the distance between us
was 350 miles.

In the tropics the quick transition from day to night is already
very perceptible; 35 or 40 minutes after the setting of the sun the
deepest darkness reigns around. The difference in the length of day
and night decreases more and more the nearer you approach the
Equator. At the Equator itself the day and night are of equal
duration.

All the 14th and 15th of August we sailed parallel with the Cape de
Verde Islands, from which we were not more than 23 miles distant,
but which, on account of the hazy state of the weather, we could not
see.

During this period we used to be much amused by small flocks of
flying-fish, which very often rose from the water so near the ship's
side that we were enabled to examine them minutely. They are
generally of the size and colour of a herring; their side fins,
however, are longer and broader, and they have the power of
spreading and closing them like little wings. They raise themselves