the force of the sea, prevent the surf from forming those bars that choke
the entrance of the south-western rivers, and render them impracticable
to boats of any considerable draught of water. These labour too under
this additional inconvenience that scarcely any except the largest run
out to sea in a direct course. The continual action of the surf, more
powerful than the ordinary force of the stream, throws up at their mouths
a bank of sand, which in many instances has the effect of diverting their
course to a direction parallel with the shore, between the cliffs and the
beach, until the accumulated waters at length force their way wherever
there is found the weakest resistance. In the southerly monsoon, when the
surfs are usually highest, and the streams, from the dryness of the
weather, least rapid, this parallel course is of the greatest extent; and
Moco-moco River takes a course, at times, of two or three miles in this
manner, before it mixes with the sea; but as the rivers swell with the
rain they gradually remove obstructions and recover their natural
channel.

AIR.

The heat of the air is by no means so intense as might be expected in a
country occupying the middle of the torrid zone. It is more temperate
than in many regions without the tropics, the thermometer, at the most
sultry hour, which is about two in the afternoon, generally fluctuating
between 82 and 85 degrees. I do not recollect to have ever seen it higher
than 86 in the shade, at Fort Marlborough; although at Natal, in latitude
34 minutes north, it is not unfrequently at 87 and 88 degrees. At sunrise
it is usually as low as 70; the sensation of cold however is much greater
than this would seem to indicate, as it occasions shivering and a
chattering of the teeth; doubtless from the greater relaxation of the
body and openness of the pores in that climate; for the same temperature
in England would be esteemed a considerable degree of warmth. These
observations on the state of the air apply only to the districts near the
sea-coast, where, from their comparatively low situation, and the greater
compression of the atmosphere, the sun's rays operate more powerfully.
Inland, as the country ascends, the degree of heat decreases rapidly,
insomuch that beyond the first range of hills the inhabitants find it
expedient to light fires in the morning, and continue them till the day
is advanced, for the purpose of warming themselves; a practice unknown in
the othe