The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries of The English Nation — Volume 12: America, Part IHakluyt, Richard
History
The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries of The English Nation — Volume 12: America, Part I
Hakluyt, Richard
Discoveries in geography -- English; Voyages and travels
And againe, our night is very short, wherein cold vapours vse to abound,
being but sixe or eight houres long, whereas theirs is alwayes twelue
houres long, by which two aduantages of long, dayes and short nights,
though we want the equalitie of Angle, it commeth to passe that in Sommer
our heat here is as great as theirs is there, as hath bene proued by
experience, and is nothing dissonant from good reason. Therefore whosoeuer
will rightly way the force of colde and heat in any region, must not onely
consider the Angle that the Sunne beames make, but also the continuance of
the same aboue the Horizon. As first to them vnder the Equinoctiall the
Sunne is twice a yeere at noone in their Zenith perpendicular ouer their
heads, and therefore during the two houres of those two dayes the heat is
very vrgent, and so perhaps it will be in foure or fiue dayes more an houre
euery day, vntill the Sunne in his proper motion haue crossed the
Equinoctiall; so that this extreme heat caused by the perpendicular Angle
of the Sunne beames, endureth but two houres of two dayes in a yeere. But
if any man say the Sunne may scalde a good while before and after it come
to the Meridian, so farre foorth as reason leadeth, I am content to allow
it, and therefore I will measure and proportion the Sunnes heat, by
comparing the Angles there, with the Angles made here in England, because
this temperature is best knowen vnto vs. As for example, the 11. day of
March, when vnder the Equinoctiall it is halfe houre past eight of the
clocke in the morning, the Sunne will he in the East about 38. degrees
aboue the Horizon, because there it riseth alwayes at six of the clocke,
and moueth euery houre 15. degrees, and so high very neere will it be with
vs at London the said eleuenth day of March at noone. And therefore looke
what force the Sunne hath with vs at noone, the eleventh of March, the same
force it seemeth to haue vnder the Equinoctial at half an houre past eight
in the morning, or rather lesse force vnder the Equinoctiall, For with vs
the Sunne had bene already sixe houres aboue the horizon, and so had
purified and clensed all the vapours, and thereby his force encreased at
noone; but vnder the Equinoctiall, the Sunne hauing bene vp but two houres
and an halfe, had sufficient to doe, to purge and consume the cold and
moyst vapours of the long night past, and as yet had wrought no effect of
heate. And therefore I may boldly pronounce, that there is much lesse heate
at halfe an houre past eight vnder the Equinoctiall, then is with vs at
noone: à fortiori. But in March we are not onely contented to haue the
Sunne shining, but we greatly desire the same. Likewise the 11. of Iune,
the Sunne in our Meridian is 62 degrees high at London: and vnder the
Equinoctiall it is so high after 10 of the clocke, and seeing then it is
beneficial with vs; à fortiori it is beneficiall to them after 10 of the
clocke.
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