[Illustration: =Vesuvius from St. Elmo.=] The old and faithful voyager, Captain Dampier, in a quaint but pleasing style, has given the most exact description of these remarkable winds, as they occur in tropical latitudes. “These sea-breezes do commonly rise in the morning about nine o’clock, sometimes sooner, sometimes later; they first approach the shore so gently, as if they were afraid to come near it, and ofttimes they make some faint breathings, and, as if not willing to offend, they make a halt, and seem ready to retire. I have waited many a time, both ashore to receive the pleasure, and at sea to take the benefit of it. It comes in a fine, small, black curl upon the water, whereas all the sea between it and the shore, not yet reached by it, is as smooth and even as glass in comparison. In half an hour’s time after it has reached the shore, it fans pretty briskly, and so increaseth, gradually, till twelve o’clock; then it is commonly strongest, and lasts so till two or three a very brisk gale; about twelve at noon it also veers off to sea two or three points, or more in very fair weather. After three o’clock, it begins to die away again, and gradually withdraws its force till all is spent; and about five o’clock, sooner or later, according as the weather is, it is lulled asleep, and comes no more till the next morning. “Land-breezes are as remarkable as any winds that I have yet treated of; they are quite contrary to the sea-breezes; for those blow right from the shore, but the sea-breeze right in upon the shore; and as the sea-breezes do blow in the day and rest in the night, so, on the contrary, these do blow in the night and rest in the day, and so they do alternately succeed each other. For when the sea-breezes have performed their offices of the day, by breathing on their respective coasts, they, in the evening, do either withdraw from the coast, or lie down to rest. Then the land-winds, whose office it is to breathe in the night, moved by the same order of divine impulse, do rouse out of their private recesses, and gently fan the air till the next morning, and then their task ends, and they leave the stage. There can be no proper time set when they do begin in the evening, or when they retire in the morning, for they do not keep to an hour, but they commonly spring up between six and twelve in the evening, and last till six, eight, or ten in the morning. They both come and go away again earlier or later, according to the weather, the season of the year, or some accidental cause from the land. For, on some coasts, they do rise earlier, blow fresher, and remain later than on other coasts, as I shall show hereafter.