Saint Catherine.—The summer heat never passes 90° in the sun; and descends to 54° in winter—June and July.
Saint Paul.—Mean temperature, 72°.
Minas Geraes.—Max., 84° summer; min., 54° winter.
Rio Janeiro.—The mean temperature of 30 years was 73°: in December, the max., 89½°; min., 70°; mean, 79°; in July (coldest month), max., 79°; min., 66°; mean, 73½°.
Bahia.—Summer: 74° morning; noon, 80°; evening, 75½°.
Pernambuco.—Summer: Varies from 77° to 86°, with a slight decline in the rainy season.
Ceara.—95° in the hottest months; 83° in the coldest.
Maranham.—St. Louis reaches 93°; and Pará, on the line, maintains about the same temperature.
The hottest period of the day, on the sea coast, is about 11 a.m., when the sea-breeze commonly sets in and moderates the temperature. The thermometer ranges in the northern provinces on the coast, at midday, 75° to 77° from March to September, and 77° to 85° from September to March; whilst at forty to fifty miles inland a high range of temperature almost invariably prevails. The barometrical variations are less extensive than those of the thermometer; but the range of the hygrometer is considerable in the southern provinces. The object, however, of the present work prohibits our entering minutely on these questions, or on the geology of Brazil; and we must therefore refer our readers to the scientific labours of M.M. Eschwège, Sellow, Spix and Martius, and Saint Hilaire, and especially to the valuable and more recent investigations of M. Pissis, who has explored the country from 13° to 26° south latitude, and 40° to 52° west longitude, including in this vast polygon the provinces of Minas Geraes, St. Paul, Rio de Janeiro, Espirito Santo, and Bahia.[72] The observations of Herschel, Humboldt and others, prove that both heat and cold, up to 34th degree of latitude, are much more moderate in the southern than in the northern hemisphere; in addition to which, Brazil, covered by extensive forests and consequent moisture, the surface clothed with perpetual verdure, from which the solar heat is but feebly reflected, its skies ever bright and a never-failing breeze, constitute a climate of unequalled mildness in any other region of the tropical world.