Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/115



FROM Rro DE JANEIRO TO MONTE VIDEO. 85

Azara calculates that " thunderbolts '^ fall about ten times more often in Paraguay than in Spain. I do not speak of the dust^ being at sea ; the rain begins by " spitting sixpences/' and ends in emptying bucketsful : the gale sleeps at night, and raves sometimes for two and even for three days, making all wretchedly uncomfortable till it has blown itself dead.

It has been remarked that the wind ending in the Pampero should traverse from north to west, and thus from south-south-west to south-west. If it pass round eastward, or with the sun, it will not last. Sailors exaggerate its effects : blowing offshore, it is therefore not so bad as the " Northern'^ of Valparaiso, and the ill-famed " Norte**' of the Mexican Gulf. But it is frigid with Andine snows, and dry as a Simoom after coursing over the naked south- temperate plains. It extends to Rio Grande, the southern- most province of the Brazil, but there it is comparatively innocuous, and the Temporal de Polvo shows to best ad- vantage, speaking of it as a curiosity, on the Pampas and where the soil is poorest. The " spelF' from Rio to Monte Video is held by seamen the worst of the six acts which represent the total voyage-drama from England to Plate- land. Our wind veers during five days almost round the compass, and becomes notably rawer as we advance. Heavy showers â€” rain being here almost inevitable â€” drench the feet; and once cooled on board, feet do not wax warm throughout the day. The fogs, or rather the Scotch mists, of the calm nights are heavy, and as we are upon the beaten track of ships, our steam-whistle is not silent. At times the water is smooth as oil, a Pacific, not a moaning and misty Atlantic. The half-knot current sets at present to the south-west, the direction by which it doubles the Horn, but a southerly gale will drive it two knots per hour to the north. About