nter and summer, each beginning with the Equinox, and
distinguished as the North and South summer respectively. But these
being exceedingly different in duration--the Northern half of the
planet having a summer exceeding by seventy-six days that of the
Southern hemisphere--are of no use as accurate divisions of time. Time
is reckoned, accordingly, from the first day of the year; the 669th
day being incomplete, and the new year beginning at the moment of the
Equinox with the 0th day. In remote ages the lapse of time was marked
by festivals and holidays occurring at fixed periods; but the
principle of utility has long since abolished all anniversaries,
except those fixed by Nature, and these pass without public observance
and almost without notice.

The climate is comparatively equable in the Northern hemisphere, the
summer of the South being hotter and the winter colder, as the planet
is much nearer the Sun during the former. On an average, the solar
disc seems about half as large as to eyes on Earth; but the continents
lying in a belt around the middle of the planet, nearly the whole of
its population enjoy the advantages of tropical regularity. There are
two brief rainy seasons on the Equator and in its neighbourhood, and
one at each of the tropics. Outside these the cold of winter is
aggravated by cloud and mist. The barometer records from 20 inches to
21 inches at the sea-level. Storms are slight, brief, and infrequent;
the tides are insignificant; and sea-voyages were safe and easy even
before Martial ingenuity devised vessels which are almost independent
of weather. During the greater part of the year a clear sky from the
morning to the evening zyda may be reckoned upon with almost absolute
confidence. A heavy dew, thoroughly watering the whole surface,
rendering the rarity of rain no inconvenience to agriculture, falls
during the earlier hours of the night, which nevertheless remains
cloudy; while the periods of sunset and sunrise are, as I have already
said, marked almost invariably by dense mist, extending from one to
four thousand feet above the sea-level, according to latitude and
season. From the dissipation of the morning to the fall of the evening
mist, the tropical temperature ranges, according to the time of the day
and year, from 24 deg. to 35 deg. C. A very sudden change takes place at
sunset. Except within 28 deg. of the Equator, night frosts prevail during
no small part of the year. Fine nights are at