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29 Chapter Three Río Pánuco L / Jean Louis Berlandier began his journey to Mexico with a cloud of anxiety and doubt hanging over him. The uncertainty of his future, the questions that arose about his abilities, or lack thereof, to accomplish the tasks set forth by Augustin Pyramus de Candolle, and the dangers of a long sea voyage to an unknown land mingled with the excitement he felt about journeying across the Atlantic to Mexico to take part in an important scientific expedition. Anxiety so often translates into fears about minor incidents , which befell Berlandier when the ship was ready to sail. Examining his luggage, his mind on the science to come, he could not find a microscope presented to him by Professor Prévost of the Academy before his departure. Prévost had taken the time to instruct Berlandier on the kind of zoological observations he wished the young scientist to make with the microscope, which Berlandier now realized, when it was too late to rectify his mistake, he had neglected to bring. Immediately, Berlandier penned a hasty note to Jules Paul Benjamin Delessert, a botanist who lived in Le Havre, asking him to send for the microscope and forward it. Despite Delessert’s efforts, Berlandier never received the microscope. Berlandier nonetheless began his observations as soon as the ship left the Bay of the Seine, entering the English Channel, where while land was still in sight he saw numerous jellyfish.1 A strong easterly carried the schooner quickly away from the land of Berlandier’s birth, a place he “cherished.” Notwithstanding his sense of loss, he was happy to discover that the rough waters of the channel did not disturb his stomach, as it did so many other passengers, who experienced recurrent Chapter Three 30 and violent seasickness. The botanist and former apothecary’s apprentice took on the role of physician, attempting to comfort and relieve the nausea of other passengers. One person in particular, a nameless man who suffered the entire voyage to America, received Berlandier’s constant attention and prescription. Through trial and error the ad hoc physician discovered that a small amount of champagne helped settle the man’s stomach, at least momentarily or until the wind blew and the ship pitched again. He theorized that the small amount of acid in the fluid was efficacious. The first night, the wind died and a calm settled on the channel; the plain of the sea seemed somehow more awe-inspiring than the tumbling breakers of day. Berlandier’s mind became restless, and he felt a profound loneliness for the past tempered by an optimistic hope for the future. He spent the night contemplating the sky, the constellations moving toward morning, when the eastern rays settled upon low-lying clouds, bringing with the passing minutes wonderful changing hues. Berlandier, who knew enough English to make out what the sailors were predicting about the day’s weather, commented in his journal about the ability of the humblest mariner at sea or farmer on land to use the rising and setting of the sun to prognosticate the day’s precipitation and temperature, usually with great accuracy. The mariners used the habits of sea creatures as well to predict meteorological changes. Dolphins skimming the waves in the same direction as the schooner led to the prediction that the wind would change from stern to bow, and indeed it happened a few hours later; dolphins, said the mariners, always swim in the direction of a coming headwind.2 The ship made rapid progress exiting the Channel, keeping Brittany to port, a strong following wind filled with rain driving the ship forward into the rough seas of the Bay of Biscay. Land birds such as crows hovered about the ship, which worried the superstitious sailors that such an evil omen presaged an unfavorable voyage. Following the northerly winds and currents through the Bay of Biscay, the ship skimmed past Cape Finisterre and the inland mountains of western Spain, sailed parallel to Portugal, then southwest , making their way toward the trade winds, keeping south of the Azores. After another week cruising through the mid-North Atlantic, they crossed the Tropic of Cancer, a notable event in Berlandier’s mind, and he took note of meteorological changes and their effect on human physiology. He had brought along a fine Celsius thermometer, which showed a rise in ten degrees from Le Havre to the Tropic of Cancer. Fortunately, it was November; the sun...

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