Friday, January 16, 2009

Aquela nuvem

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Quando passou pelo Rio, em 1832, Charles Darwin, então com 23 anos, se encantou com aquela nuvenzinha permanentemente encarapitada no Corcovado

Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle

I was often interested by watching the clouds, which, rolling in from seaward, formed a bank just beneath the highest point of the Corcovado. This mountain, like most others, when thus partly veiled, appeared to rise to a far prouder elevation than its real height of 2300 feet. Mr. Daniell has observed, in his meteorological essays, that a cloud sometimes appears fixed on a mountain summit, while the wind continues to blow over it. The same phenomenon here presented a slightly different appearance. In this case the cloud was clearly seen to curl over, and rapidly pass by the summit, and yet was neither diminished nor increased in size. The sun was setting, and a gentle southerly breeze, striking against the southern side of the rock, mingled its current with the colder air above; and the vapour was thus condensed: but as the light wreaths of cloud passed over the ridge, and came within the influence of the warmer atmosphere of the northern sloping bank, they were immediately redissolved.

1 comment:

Ana said...

Tentei ler "Viagem de Um Naturalista ao Redor do Mundo" vol 2.
Saltei muitas páginas, capítulos mesmo.

Deu é vontade de fazer a viagem de novo.

"Viajar também deveria ensiná-los (aos naturalistas) a desconfiar, mas ao mesmo tempo ele irá descobrir a grande quantidade de pessoas verdadeiramente bem intencionadas que existe com quem ele nunca tinha se comunicado ou nunca irá se comunicar novamente e que ainda assim estarão prontas para lhe oferecer a mais desinteressada ajuda."

Não sei não!