THE inhabitants of the sea-shore in tropicalcountrieswait every morning with impatience for the coming of the sea breeze. It usually sets in about ten o"clock. Then the sultry heat of the oppressive morning is dissipated, and there is a delightful freshness in the air, which seems to give new life to all for their daily labours. About sunset there is again another calm. The sea breeze is now over, and in a short time the land breeze sets in. This alternation of the land and sea breezes-a wind from the sea by day, and from the land by night-is so regular, in tr0opical countries, that it is looked for by the people with as much confidence as the rising and setting of the sun In extra-tropical countries, especially those on the polar side of the trade-winds,these breezes blow only in summer.
and autumn; for then only is the heat of the sun sufficiently intense to produce the requisite degree of atmospherical rarefaction④ over the land. This depends in a measure, also, on the character of the land upon which the sea breeze blows; for when the surface is arid, and the soil barren, the heating power of the sun is exerted with most effect. In such cases the sea breeze amounts to a gale of wind.
In the summer of the southern hemisphere the sea breeze is more powerfully developed at Valparaiso⑤ than at any other place to which my services afloat have led me. Here regularly in the afternoon, at this season, the sea breeze blows furiously: pebbles are torn up from the walks and whirled about the streets; people seek shelter; business is interrupted, and all communication from the shipping to the shore is cut off. Suddenly the winds and the sea, as if they had again heard the voice of rebuke, are hushed, and there in a great calm.
The lull that follows is delightful. The sky is without a cloud; the atmosphere is transparency itself; the Andes⑥ seem to draw near; the climate, always mild and soft, becomes now doubly sweet by the contrast. The evening invites abroad, and the population sally forth-the ladies in ball costume, for now there is not wind enough to disarrange the lightest curl.
In the southern summer this change takes place day after day with the utmost regularity; and yet the calm always seems to surprise one, and to come before one has had time to realize that the furious sea wind could so soon be hushed. Presently the stars begin to peep out; timidly at first, as if to see whether the elements here below have ceased their strife, and whether the scene on Earth be such as they, from their bright spheres aloft, may shed their sweet influences upon.
Alone in the night-watch, after the sea breeze had sunk to rest, I have stood on the deck under those beautiful skies, gazing, admiring, rapt. I have seen there, above the horizon at the same time, and shining with a splendour unknown to northern latitudes, every star of the first magnitude-save only six-that is contained in the catalogue of the one hundred principal fixed stars of astronomers. There lies the city on the sea-shore, wrapped in sleep. The sky looks solid, like a vault of steel set with diamonds! The stillness below is in harmony with the silence above; and one almost fears to speak, lest the harsh sound of the human voice, reverberating through those vaulted "chambers of the south," should wake up echo, and drown the music that fills the soul.