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 thus haue wee measured the force of the Sunnes greatest heate, the
hottest dayes in the yeere, vnder the Equinoctiall, that is in March and
September, from sixe till after tenne of the clocke in the morning, and
from two vntill Sunne set. And this is concluded, by respecting onely the
first cause of heate, which is the consideration of the Angle of the Sunne
beames, by a certaine similitude, that whereas the Sunne shineth neuer
aboue twelue houres, more then eight of them would bee coole and pleasant
euen to vs, much more to them that are acquainted alwayes with such warme
places. So there remaineth lesse then foure houres of excessiue heate, and
that onely in the two Sommer dayes of the yeere, that is the eleueuth day
of March, and the fourteenth of September: for vnder the Equinoctiall they
haue two Sommers, the one in March, and the other in September, which are
our Spring and Autumne: and likewise two Winters, in Iune and December,
which are our Sommer and Winter, as may well appeare to him that hath onely
tasted the principles of the Sphere. But if the Sunne bee in either
Tropicke, or approaching neere thereunto, then may wee more easily measure
the force of his Meridian altitude, that it striketh vpon the Equinoctiall.
As for example, the twelfth of Iune the Sunne will be in the first degree
of Cancer. Then look what force the heate of the Sunne hath vnder the
Equinoctiall, the same force and greater it hath in all that Parallel,
where the Pole is eleuated betweene fourtie and seuen, and fourtie and
eight degrees. [Sidenote: Paris in France is as hote as vnder the
Equinoctiall in Iune.] And therefore Paris in France the twelfth day of
Iune sustaineth more heate of the Sunne, then Saint Thomas Iland lying
neere the same Meridian doeth likewise at noone, or the Ilands Traprobana,
Molluccæ, or the firme lande of Peru in America, which all lye vnderneath
the Equinoctiall. For vpon the twelfth day of Iune aforesaide, the Sunne
beames at noone doe make an Isoscheles Triangle, whose Vertex is the Center
of the Sunne, the Basis a line extended from Saint Thomas Iland vnder the
Equinoctiall, vnto Paris in France neere the same Meridian: therefore the
two Angles of the Base must needs be equal per 5. primi,[60] Ergo the force
of the heat equal, if there were no other cause then the reason of the
Angle, as the olde Philosophers haue appointed. [Sidenote: In Iune is
greater heat at Paris then vnder the Equinoctiall.] But because at Paris
the Sunne riseth two houres before it riseth to them vnder the
Equinoctiall, and setteth likewise two houres after them, by meanes of the
obliquitie of the Horizon, in which time of the Sunnes presence foure
houres in one place more then the other, it worketh some effect more in one
place then in the other, and being of equall height at noone, it must then
needs follow to be more hote in the Parallel of Paris, then it is vnder the
Equinoctiall.
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