ÖÖI 8x 3 ^c- 0 - Acehbooks.org

S U M A T R A. ii
of the fouth weftern rivers, and render them impracticable to boats of
any draught of water. Thefe labor too under this additional inconvenience
; that fcarce any, except the largeft, run out to fea in a direct
courfe. The continual action of the furf, more powerful than the ordinary
force of the ftream, throws up at their mouths a bank of land, which
diverts their courfe to a direction parallel with the fhore, between the
cliffs and the beach, till the accumulated waters at length force their
way wherever there is found the weakeft refinance.* In the foutherly
Monfoon, when the furfs are ufually higheft, and the rivers, from the
drynefs of the weather, leaft rapid, this parallel courfe is at the greateft
extent; but as the rivers fwell with the rain, they gradually remove
obftructions and recover their natural channel.
The heat of the air is by no means fo intenfe as might be expedted, Air.
in a country occupying the middle of the torrid zone. It is more temperate
than in many regions without the tropics, the thermometer, at the
moft fultry hour, which is about two in the afternoon, generally fluctuating
between 82 and 85 degrees.+• I do not recollect to have ever feen
it higher than 86 in the fhade. At fun rife it is ufually as low as 70 ;
the fenfation of cold, however, is much greater than this would feem
to indicate, as it occafions lhivering and a chattering of the teeth ; doubtlefs
from the greater relaxation of the body, and opennefs of the pores
in that climate ; for the fame temperature in England would be efteemed
a confiderable degree of warmth. Thefe obfervations on the ftate of the
air, apply only to the uiftricT.s near the fea coaft, where, from their comparatively
low fituation, and the greater compreffion of the atmofphere,
the fun's rays operate more powerfully. Inland, as the country afcends,
the degree of heat decreafes rapidly, infomuch, that beyond the firft
range of hills, the inhabitants find it expedient to light fires in the morning,
and continue them till the day is advanced, for the purpofe of
+ Mbco Moco river takes a courfe, at times, of three miles, in this manner, before it mixes
with the fea.
* At Calcutta in Bengal, the thermometer, in the hot feafon, rifes to 93 0 . up the country
fctnetimes to ioi°;in the ihade; and even after Am fet, it has been obferyed at 96*.
warming