Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1870-07-01

May lOth, lS1u. }
FRIEND G.:
Your letter reached me here on
our arrival last night, and was very glad.
indeed, to hear from you, and to learn the
! new, at hom-. | received a couple OF BrL.
LErINs OF the 9Th anu l4th at MMarch, aud
was very n,n"h interested in the news they
! contained, after having been cut off from
| communication with home lol what seemed
| a long tune.
We l-f Madeira on the sth of April. and
. reached here ON the 9th Of May. having
been 81 days out. We passed within sight
! of the Canaries and through the Cape de
Verdes, but did n stop at either. IL was
a splendid moonlight nipht when we ran
| down between San Antonio and San Vim
cent of The latter group, and the passage
was so narrow that We could see in the
bright light all the rugged outlines of the
volcanic ridges of both isl+nds. An occa-
sional light upon the hllsides and The lamps
of the Tile town of Porto Grande, were,
ho gever, all the signs of human life that
were visible, and, indeed, unlike Madeira,
these islands have few inhabitants, and
those principally negroes from the coast Of
Africa, which is but some five or six hun
dred miles away.
This was the last land we saw until we
sigh ed the coas, of Brazil Yesterday. Our
voyage, however, was the pleasantest imag
inable-splendid weather. fair winds and
smooth seas nearly all the time. 1t was the
very poetry of sailing. We had the Trade
Winds for sixteen Or eighteen degrees each
side Of the Equatorial calm belt, and when
in these, so uniform and steady is the wind
that for days and sometimes for weeks it is
hardly necessary to touch n sail or brace a
yard. The theory of Trade Winds is this ::
The vertical rays of the sun at the Equator
so heat the atmosphere, that the hot air as
cends and is drawn off towards the Poles.
The vacuum thus left is filed by colder air
that rushes in from the direction of the
Poles-the first consttutiI e the Upper
Trade Winds" and the second the "Lower
Trade Winds" This process going on all
| the time, makes these opposite currents con-
| stant, though somewhat variable in force.
North of the Equator the general direction
of the lower current of air is from the north
east, and below the Eq"ator from the south
east, and therefore a vessel going omewha'
west of south, as our course lay. has the wind
fair all the time. Within the belt Of
"Trades,' the weather is uniformly bright
and pleasant, and therefore there is no
drawback to the luxury Of sailing there. In
the Equatorial calm belt, however, which is
where the process Of expansion and rarifi.
cation Of the air goes forward, and which is
generally two or three degrees wide, with a
cbangeable locality according as the sun
moves from or towards the Equator, there
are no winds except puffs and squalls, which
are invariably accompanied by heavy show
ers of rain. Sometimes vessels are weeks
and even months getting across the narrow
belt, but fortunately for US, we lay in it but
two or three days, and though we had the
squalls and the showers, and the inevitable
heat of the locality, we were less uncom.
Portable than we expected, and indeed had
no considerable sense of discomfort to in.
terfere with our other pleasant impressions
Of the voyage.
1t seemed very peculiar, as we ran south
ward. to pass so soon from winter tempera.
ture to the heat of the tropics, and then
back again to the winter of this locality
which, however, would make a pretty fair
summer for us in Iowa. 1t was also strange
to see the north star and the familiar con.
stellations of the northern hemisphere go
gradually down from view. and to have the
southern cross and the southern constella.
tions gemming the armament. The stellar
beauties Of the southern hemisphere, how
ever, are not SO great as those OF the north.
ern, and the southern cross is by no msans
remarkable, being composed of FIVE stars Of
inferior magnitude. II scc,ncd strange.