Sun 71. Where to be expected on this side the Tropique 78. The Variation thereof in severall Longitudes 79. Why the Westerly Winds blow most commonly without the Tropiques 86. The Provinciall Winds 90. A discourse concerning the Terrheinos and Viracoins or the Land and Sea-Brises 92. Their History and Cause 93. c. When they come in or cease in the Straights on the Coasts of Guiny the East and West-Indies and what Accidents hasten or retard their approach from p. 99. to 110. Of the Etesian or Anniversary Winds their severall species 111. 112. c. Of the Anniversary Winds in the way to the East-Indies which they call the Monsoons 119. How many months they continue the same Course on the Coasts of Africk and India 121. The Changing or Breaking up of the Monsoons 122. A Discourse concerning the Qualities of Wind p. 131. deriv'd from their Constituent Parts or the Medium through which they passe 131. Some Tryalls for the Explication of this Phaenomenon 133. 134. c. The Great incertainty of these observations and the diversities of their Qualities in severall Climates 138. The Properties of Easterly Winds Vnwholesome in most parts of Europe and yet in America very agreeable and pleasant 141. Of the South Winds 142. Why they magnify Visible objects and cause a stammering in the speech 147. Of the Westerly Winds their exceeding violence in the Isle of Jersy and Coast of Cornwall 150. Of the North Winds their wonderfull impetuosity in Norwey and Island 161. The great Caution to be us'd and what Circumstances are to be consider'd in judging the Qualities of Winds 172. 173. The causes of Hot Winds 174. 175. The Extremity of their Heat toward the Persian Gulf and severall instances of other Scorching Winds in Afric and Arabia where they blow off from the Sands 178. 179. The causes of Cold Winds 181. 182. The Sea-Winds in the Temperate Zones hotter then those which blow over the Land 187. Instances of this Nature in Great Britain the Isle of Jersy Virginia Florida and several other places 188. 189. c. Yet in the Torrid Zone the Sea-Brises cooling and pleasant examples thereof in America 191. Some Unusuall Qualities of Wind. 194. Of the Harmetans in Guiny 195. 196. The Virulent and Destructive Qualities of certain Winds in the West-Indies 201. Some Proposals for a more Accurate Discovery of the Nature and Qualities of Winds in relation to Architecture Navigation and severall Trades and Mechanicall Arts from 209. to 222. Diverse Prognostiques of Wind. 223. Of Whirlwinds in Generall 229. Their severall species 231. Concerning the Tornados a Description of their Nature 236. 237. How many degrees they are to be expected on this side the Aequinoctiall and at what time of the year 246. Most towards the Coasts of Guiny 247. The Tempests near the Cape Bon Esperance 245. The Cause of the Tornados 249. The Presters or Fiery Whirlwinds Examples thereof 251. 254. Hurricanes Some conjectures concerning their cause 257. The Places where they happen 265. 266. Their Prognostiques and Description in diverse Historicall Relations from 269. to 292. c. THe Origines of Winds are no lesse Various then their Motions we ought not to determine positively concerning those Appearances in nature which may be rationally explicated severall ways Though we consult the Placits of the learned Ancients consider also what we owe to the improvements of latter times yet I question whether any Theory was ever yet started on this Argument which will adequately resolve the whole Phaenomenon of VVinds and we must never expect to confine their Originall to any one determinate Cause Most of the Graecian Philosophers agreed in the same Definition of Wind till the Prince of the Peripatetiques was not only ambitious to establish a New Hypothesis of his own but likewise undertook the confutation of his Master Plato the rest of his Predecessors The Philosophicall Monarch thought he could never raign securely in the minds of men unlesse like the Family of the Ottomans he destroy'd all his Bretheren first I have no intention to disparage the Authority of the Ancients but I cannot be so injurious to the many noble productions of our present Age to think that all Science is only to be sought for in the Urns of the Dead we have a more intimate converse with Nature then heretofore which displays her beautifull Bosome and every day affords new Discoveries of usefull knowledge and further conducing to the Benefit of Human life If we consider the successe that Philosophy has met with in the VVorld we shall find that those Opinions which obtain'd most in one Age had their Fatall Periods were as much exploded decry'd in the next it 's as impossible that any one Hypothesis should be calculated to the Gusto of all persons when the sentiments of men are different as their complexions I have therefore taken a larger compasse then the Generallity of writers and deriv'd the Origines of Winds from severall Causes which I rather endeavour to prove from Accounts of our Sea-Voyages and relations of Matters of Fact then to refine on them by any nice speculations of my own For this Philosophy is not to be had in Colleges or Books but must be fetch 't frō both Indies we must traverse the wide Seas be tost to as many points of the Compasse as Columbus or Drake we must climb into the Regions of the Air descend into the Caverns of the Earth to detect the innumerable Causes Qualities of VVinds They are diffus'd like the Universall mind and it requires a kind of ubiquity to understand them How small a portion is it of the vast system of the World that we inhabit and how much lesse of it that we comprehend How Extravagant are the Phaenomena of the large American tracts their Tydes VVinds and other Aeriall impressions how different and irreconcileable to Ours How many noble discoverys have been made in these Countries which the Athenian Sages could never think of in their narrow Porches Gardens They might spin fine webs out of their own bowels but for want of a closer inspection into Nature their Texture Materials are slight And we must acknowledge that even the Stagirite himself has left us no very perfect Theory of VVinds though this Province of late years has been more succesfully undertaken by the Lord Verulam Galileo De Cartes and other illustrious Moderns Aristotle constitutes two species of Exhalations the one vapid or moist the other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fumid or Terrene and as the first is employ'd in Rain Hail or Snow c. So the other furnishes materials for Winds c. The Ancients understand no more by wind then a Motion of the Air Anaximander in Plutarch styles it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and some others 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to which that of Seneca may allude Ventus est Aer Fluens But neither the Prince of the Peripatetics ever supposed
motions being excentricall to the Earth cause so unequall a distribution of heat cold that the Air must of necessity be denser in some parts then others and consequently lyable to the frequent disturbance of VVinds and the vapors according to the distinct seasons of the yeare being continually either retiring from the Poles or on their voyage thither the Sun as Prince of the Atmosphere obliges them to a motion no lesse constant then his own Insomuch that neither These or indeed any other VVinds are so fortuitous as many suppose but proceed from regular causes and are guided by the certain conduct of nature though happily the manner of it may not be fully understood by us The Norths are often exceedingly impetuous on the shoars of Florida and Virginia taring up Forrests of vast Trees by the roots and wasting the whole Country like Hurracanes They blow very hard toward the Orcades and on that side the British Coasts But they must needs be very sensible of their effects in Finmark Russia which lye more expos'd to their fury The Bishop of Upsal in two Chapters De Vehementiâ Venti Circii De Vent Sept. Violentiâ informes us of many disasters which happen by them in Norway and Island particularly that at the Port call'd Vestrabord the N. E. VVind blows with such vehemence that it dismounts the Horsemen and Souldiers driving them away before it On the Western shoars of Norwey it suffers not so much as a tree or the least shrub to grow that the Inhabitants are forc'd if you believe our Author to roast their meat with fire made of great fishes Bones And in Bothnia and that part of Norwey which they call Vichia the Northern Whirlewinds are so terrible that they carry away the roofs of their houses and of the Churches which are cover'd with lead blowing away great beams and rafters removing Wind-mills stones and even Castles and Villages from one place to another If this be an Author suspected the Annals of our own Country will furnish us with relations of the same nature which would require as large a share of credulity to believe them if the rage of these Tempestuous Winds was not sufficiently understood in most parts of Europe though happily in remoter Climates which are less acquainted with the great Disturbers of the Northern World they might seem fabulous Some of which are solemny recorded in our Historys that even exceed the Hurracanes of the West Indies Yet I have heard that those Winds which we count very great stormes here in England would be thought no wonder in Scotland where they are accustomed to these violent Blasts and for this reason build their houses universally with stone exceeding thick low and with narrow windows But not to be prolix in their History we might offer at the cause whence this strang vehemence and impetuosity of the N. VVinds does proceed Shall we say from the great quantity of exhalations laid up in the Treasuries of the North or because they find the resistence lesse toward the South where the Atmosphere is rarified by the heat of the Sun so that they glide without opposition through the yeilding Air especially in the day time wherefore the aforesaid Northerly Winds are observ'd to blow harder by day then night They are more Sonorous then other Winds because they rage with greater violence and so make a stronger collision of the Air. I have thus farre considerd their nature in the remoter parts of Europe where they are nearest their Source But after they have made a long Progresse Southwards and are heated in their approaches towards the Sun we find them in Africk to be farre different from what they were in Norwey or Island and their qualityes no lesse various then the Temperature of the Heavens So likewise in America and as Acosta observs more particularly of some Countrys in Peru the Northerly Wind is counted unwholesome and the Southerly extremely cherishing to men and beasts The first is not penetrating nor disperses clouds as among us but causes rain and the South Wind is just qualify'd in those climes as the North is in our country's that lye nearer the Arctic Pole Nay not only comparatively to different situations and places but the judgment to be made concerning the Qualitys of Winds from the Quarters whence they blow is very various and fallible in relation to one and the same Latitude Many of the hardest frosts which have happend in England began with a Southerly wind and then commonly are the more lasting and violent which nevertheless is generally much hotter then any other which arrives at the British coasts I took notice no longer since then the 11 of January last that in the morning we had much rain the wind being N. and N. E. which ceasing about noon there followed first a showre of haile and then a considerable fall of snow the wind still continuing at N. and N. E. which was the most part of it dissolv'd by 3 or 4 in the afternoon then the VVind vering to full South it froze exceedingly hard for the time So little certainty is there in observations of this nature that we had Rain with a Northerly and Frost with a Southerly VVind in the same day And not only thus but it appear'd by the Weather-glasse to which I had recourse upon this occasion that there was a very suddain mutation in the Air from heat to cold when the Wind came about to the South more then in the morning while it continued at N. and N. E. VVee must expect these so different Qualifications of VVinds to happen even in the same Climate since not only the Variety of their Component Particles and the Fountains which gave them birth but either the Cutting down Forrests Draining of Fenns Changing the Currents of great rivers Their Vicinity or Distance from the Course of the Sun whether they blow off from Land or Sea or Snowy Mountains and a thousand extraneous accidents are sufficient to alter the Properties of Winds Neither are the laws of their Motions reducible to such certain rules as Aristotle pretends That two Opposites alwaies blow at Contrary Seasons of the year As the N. W. about the Vernall and the S. W. at the Autumnall Aequinox and it would likewise be examin'd whether the same Contrariety happen constantly between the Solstitiall Winds Others have observ'd that wee commonly feel a a S. Wind at midnight an Easterly at the Rising and a Westerly after the Setting of the Sun and last of all a Northerly about Noon when the Solar rays are most powerfull to resolve the grosser mists and clouds in the North. For VVinds being for the generality Nothing but Dilated Vapours or Air they almost wholly depend on the Presence of the Sun at least are generated from the heat left behind him in the Earth and Waters VVhereupon De-Cartes ingeniously remarks that wee should have no such Variety in the Qualities and Production of Winds if the whole
and Pestilentiall but to certain African Provinces healthfull and Pleasant The Northerly are coldest in our European World and the Southerly on the other side of the Aequinoctiall For the Arctick and Antarctick VVinds must needs be of the same nature blowing from either of the Poles where the cold is equally predominant So that the Qualitys of many VVinds seeme not so much to respect the Points of the compasse as the Course of the Sun The Eastern Winds according to Aristotle are hot and dry nor is their Siccity only remarkable in Greece Palestine Asia the Lesse and most parts of Africk where they make long marches over the parcht and barren sands but likewise in the more temperate climes of Holland and France by reason they passe through Poland Germany other vast tracts of Land and lastly arriving at our Isle they can suffer no considerable alteration in their qualitys by so small a passage over the Narrow Seas They are no very welcome guests to us in England being ominous to our Gardens Fields by blasting the corn and fruits I have known strange destruction done in one Night when they come late in the spring Sometimes they not only blite the leaves and blossoms but kill the Trees with their poysonous breath They bring after them swarms of Caterpillers and other devouring insects or those dry and tabid mists which corrupt the lungs and cause Epilepsys Consumptions c. whether by driving before them the putrid Air from Holland or however they contract that malignity in their natures Nevertheless wee can make no Generall conclusions of their propertys from hence which are chang'd by innumerable acidents For though in these Countrys of Great Britain they are inauspicious both to animals and plants yet in the West Indies the Eastern Brise is refreshing and healthfull above all other VVinds. In Arabia and those Asiatique regions they are exceedingly dry by travelling for many thousand leagues over the sandy desarts yet Blondus observes them to be rather humid in Italy and to occasion a relenting in the Air where they blow immediately from the Adriatique Seas In relation to their degrees of heat though Aristotle declares they are much hotter then the Westerly wee find by experience that with us in England the Easterly are at certain Seasons of the yeare exceeding cold and very often the most freesing winds especially if they hang somewhat towards the North. I need assign no other cause for the frigidity of the Easterly Winds then that they have their first rise from the Continent where the Midland Air is much colder then the Maritime The South Winds are generally reputed Hot and Moist on this side the Line being heated in their entry through the Torrid Zone or because they consist not of melted Snows as the Northern but of the Tepid and Sulphury steams from Africk and other Sunburn'd climes They passe over no Seas of any large extent just crossing the Mediterranean and British yet they moisten and relax the Air and cause wet weather by dissolving the Clouds into rain which are rather dissipated and blown over by the impetuous Norths Yet I think it very irrationall to conclude that all the Southerly should have their rise from the Torrid or the Northerly VVinds from the Frigid Zones Since it is not unknown to the Curious that in part of Italy and Provence they have very often Northerly VVinds rising as is suppos'd from some places about the Alps whereof they are not at all sensible in other Countrys of France through which they must of necessity passe if they came so farre North. In like manner at Marseilles and in the Mediterranean they have oftentimes Southerly VVinds when they blow from contrary points on the African Continent which lyes more to the South I believe very few of the South Winds here in England ever took a longer flight then from the Mediterranean Sea or the lower parts of France and it can scarce be suppos'd that the same Numericall Exhalations could ever travell from between the Tropiques and not be spent in the way long er'e they arrive at the British Coasts yet happily by protruding the Ambient Air and that successively the Contiguous to it the motion may at length be Propagated many hundreds of Miles beyond the reach of those vapors which caus'd the first Agitation So that it is not impossible but that a VVind which began neer the Aequinoctiall may by this means be continued even to the Poles of the VVorld However I shall make no longer digressions concerning their Extent but proceed to the Qualitys which are vulgarly ascrib'd to the Southerly VVinds. They are laxative stupefactive and pestilentiall They cause Epilepsies and pains in the head and were therefore styld 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Grecians They render men Shaagrin and melancholy and in some of the Azores Islands the children are said to sit dejected and leave their playing when they blow For first they open the pores of our bodys by their heat and then insinuate the malignant influences and the parts being pointed and volatile have not only an easy ingression into our blood but thaw and unloose the textures of ice and snow Nay it 's most certain that iron it selfe takes the file much better when the South Wind blows then at other times They many times cause a farre rougher Sea then the most Tempestuous Winds from the North Happily because they blow more obliquely and rake the Surface of the Water when as the Northerly oftentimes descend as from a precipice downwards which immediately deads and weakens their force They magnify visible objects As our Seamen observe their ships to appeare bigger at a distance either in misty weather or when the South Wind blows For the humid and nebulous vapors of which they consist distort the visual beams and by refracting them to the Perpendicular cause more rays of light to enter into the eye which makes the object seeme larger then otherwise would arrive at it in strait lines Many who are naturally inclin'd to Stammering in their speech do find their infirmity evidently worse when the Wind is toward the South Probably because the moisture of the Air causeth a greater relaxation of the Nervs and thereby a tremulous and unstable motion of the muscles at that time Which perhaps hath more power upon the Vocall muscles then others because they lye in the Road and are more expos'd to the invasions of whatever is breath'd in at the mouth or nostrills then others are Whence also wee find the tongue more apt to falter though somewhat in a different manner whensoever it is overmuch bedew'd with strong and vaporous liquors Smells are said to be most Fragrant in these Winds when the Air is humid and lax to convey the odoriferous particles They anticipate the Spring and cause the trees to blossome and bud forth before their time and by this means exhaust their spirits and nutritive juyce They damp linnen and paper though never
Terraqueous Globe were of one uniforme superficies as wee may perceive that in wide Seas their motions are farr less irregular then by Land since the great diversity of Climates Mountains and Lakes varies them exceedingly I have thus farr discours'd of the 4 Principall the Collaterall or Intermediate VVinds if any right judgment could be made of their natures from the Quarters whence they blow might be suppos'd Hot Dry Moist c. as they are farther remov'd or hang nearer towards the Cardinal Point But we are like to expect little satisfaction from the generality of writers concerning the temperature of VVinds For who can with patience hear the impertinence of those Notionall men that enquire no further but declare That the South Wind is allways Hot and Moist the North Cold and Dry the West c. which obliges us in the following discourses to offer at some more accurate account of their Qualitys and the most Universall causes from whence they proceed First VVinds are Moist either because their Constituent parts are made up of Vapid and Aqueous corpuscles such as rain dews watry Clouds or by reason they make long Voyages by Sea or over great Lakes Morish Countrys Fenns and so are tainted with the Qualitys of the Medium through which they passe Those which proceed from Melted Snows have some small allay of the Terrene but approach neerer the Moist The Siccity of VVinds is from their Saline and Terrestriall parts or that arriving from those Parc'ht and Torrid regions neer the Line they are exsiccated as they travell by the Ways of the Sun I shall not dispute whether this has been cautiously enough minded by most writers How many nice circumstances are to be consider'd in judging the Qualitys of VVinds and how difficult it is to make a just Estimate of their severall degrees of Heat and Cold. For there must not only be especiall regard had to the Temperament of our Senses but to the Climes in which they blow and seasons of the year Since those which would seem hot at Christmas comparatively to the winter Cold should the same happen in July when wee had been long accustom'd to a different temperature of our Organs and the Ambient Air would undoubtedly appeare exceedingly Cold. Then wee denominate VVinds either Gelid or Hot in respect of those that usually blow in such Climats as the Southern Blasts with us here in England though they are Colder then the Ambient Air may be reputed Hot comparatively to the N. or N. E. which are much more refrigerative in these parts of the VVorld Thus wee ought not rashly to make judgment of their Qualitys but first consider what Symptoms of Heat they betray in relation to Weather-glasses or the Winds that commonly blow in such Countrys as likewise what mutations happen by them in the Temperature of the Air And afterwards compare all these Circumstances with the present disposition of our Organs least wee determine concerning the positive Qualitys of VVinds from only the Prejudices and Hallucinations of Sense There are severall Causes Productive of Heat As their passage through Hot Regions Or because they consist of the ignite and suffocating Air which infests the Burning Zone where the whole Masse is corrupted with such intolerable heats that the Winds which are either generated therein or only pervade the Torrid regions must needs for some time retain their temperament and Qualitys till at length they loose them in long voyages and the calorifique particles languish and dwindle away by degrees being oppres'd with multitudes of Heterogeneous exhalations in their course Then I think it not improbable but that the Solar rays or whatever parcells beside of the Subtil and Aetheriall matter may by mingling with them actually advance the heat of VVinds. And Lastly The ignite Damps such as wee sometimes discover in Colepits and Mines and all other of the Minerall and Metalline Kingdomes that finding no Vent cause Earthquakes in the Bowells thereof if they escape through the Pores of the Earth occasion Presters and Hot VVinds And those fiery eruptions which in many places of Calabria and Sicily are continually breathing out from the Subterraneall Regions must needs diffuse the seminals of heat through the whole body of the Air and VVinds especially such as come reaking from under Burning Mountains or at least are the results of those Calorifique mixtures by which some Mineralls and salts fermenting together in the Cavitys of the Earth emit Hot fumes Like severall Chymicall preparations such as Oyl of Tartar and spirit of Vitriol which cause a strange Ebullition and Heat by their commistion only And if wee suppose any thing Analogous to these under ground where Nature in her own Elaboratory often exceeds the greatest Sagacity of Art why may not the Tepid Steams and Vapors that ascend from thence be able to produce so considerable a degree of Heat in the Air that might occasion Scorching Winds And happily the Rancounters of Certain Mineralls with each other in those Passages where the VVaters flow may likewise by their mutuall ferments be the most probable cause of many Hot Baths Springs Neverthelesse Fromundus some other Naturalists of late in the Number of which wee may reckon our Countryman Mr. Hobs affirme that all VVinds whatever doe actually refrigerate and oftentimes so intensly that they prove the fittest instruments for the Congelation of Liquids And I must confesse it seldome falls under our observation that in any parts of Europe the VVinds are comparatively hotter then our Sensories or the Ambient Air yet in many Provinces of Afric Arabia but most of all near the Persian Gulf where they come just off from the Burning Sands they are intolerably hot and suffocating as appears from the Relations of the Portugalls first Voyages to the East Indies where they felt Gales of the E. and N. E. Wind so Hot that the Air seem'd to be inflam'd and scorching like fire So likewise Gasparo Balbi in his Travells speaks of four persons that weary'd in their Journy sat down near the Banks of Euphrates to refresh themselves a while and were all stifled by one of these Hot Winds And wee have a more surprising Narrative from Marcus Polo that when the King of Chermain sent an Army of 16 Hundred horse and 5 thousand foot against the Lord of Ormus for not paying his Tribute they all perisht by these Suffocating Blasts But if wee distrust the integrity of these writers Olearius in his Voyage to Persia describes the intemperature of the Air in those Countrys to be such that with the North or East Wind they felt a Cold which depriv'd them of their Limbs and on the Contrary the S. Winds were ready to choak them with the extremity of heat But Della Valle a Nobleman of Rome whose Curiosity led him through most of the Eastern Kingdomes reports that towards Arabia there was a VVind so scorching and Dry that it left behind it like marks of Fire wherever it came
many particles of matter crowded in little Space they must necessarily justle and arietate each other thought VVinds to be nothing else but the Strugling or Agitation of Atoms On the contrary if there chance to be few Atoms in much space so that there be no Pressure or Coarctation in a free spacious heaven this they say begets tranquillity and a serene Temperature of the Heavens Lastly beside this Superoneration these Flatulent Emotions may proceed from any other Cause which alters the Aequilibrium of the Atmosphere So that it will be sufficient to generate Winds if the Air be only denser in one part then another by the unequall distribution of vapours Therefore we have commonly a gentle Brise breathing off from Ponds or Lakes where the Cold more especially condenses the Air at least the Vapours arise in greater plenty from Humid Bodies Thus we sometimes see a larger collection of clouds in one Quarter which being afterwards discharg'd in showrs there oftentimes follows a wind from the immediate conflux of the vapours to that place For the Currents of Air imitate the Motions of water and by the just laws of Hydrostatiques according to their respective gravity mount higher or descend so that there is a perpetuall inquietude till it come to an exact Aequilibrium and what cause soever it be which varys the Counterpoise of the Atmosphere must needs occasion Winds The 2 d cause which produces these Intermediate Winds is Compression when two or more Clouds impetuously pressing or falling upon each other drive out a VVind from between them The Purest most Aetheriall matter is not without some degree of Gravitation though we want Instruments to make such nice discoverys in Nature However the Gosser Vapors Air which inhabite the Middle Region gravitate more sensibly of which wee can be able to give some Account by our Barometers when the Quick silver rises higher or subsides in the Tube VVinds may be thus generated from Pressure alone Suppose D. H. in the following Figure to be the Incumbent Vapors or Clouds F the superficies of the Earth Sea or another subjacent Cloud Wee have a lively resemblance of this in Common Bellows when the Sides closing compresse the included Air force it to issue out impetuously at the Nose or Pipe I have oftentimes observ'd that Stiffe Gusts of Wind happen immediately before Rain because the Clouds being overcharg'd and teeming with showers presse more then at other times and when the Atmosphere begins to thicken and grow Ponderous over our heads wee seldom fail of a VVind some small distance from thence which likewise ceases when the showre is fallen Moreover the Elasticity of the Air which the Peripateticks make little regard of And those Ingenious Moderns who have demonstrated it's Elasticall force from many noble experiments yet never apply'd it Particularly to this Phaenomenon of VVinds though it prove oftentimes the most Immediate cause of their production For the Air whether from the gravity of Incumbent Vapors and Clouds superfluity of matter or however straiten'd and oppres'd do's as soon expand it self like a fleece of Wool after the compression till it arrive at the former Dimensions again And being Dilated Explicated and as it were Unbent must needs agitate and propell the contiguous bodys that reduc'd it to such straits before as we see the Elasticall power of it in VVindguns how impatient it is of restraint and willing to regain it's liberty when the first opportunity is offer'd How easily susceptible of the least impressions as appears from the Propagation of Sounds when the noise of Bells or Canon is heard that is to say they shake the Air for many miles in almost an imperceptible time And the Elastical reciprocations of the Atmosphere by whatever species of coarctation the Aerial spring is bent though they are not obvious to our senses yet are both consonant to reason and agreable to the actings of Nature in such cases And if this strugling or Emotion of the Air necessarily results from it's Elasticity or Repletion This mov'd or agitated Air is Wind Ventus enim est ubi fit agitando percitus Aer Lucret. A 2 d Locall origine of winds in generall is from the Earth or Seas either by resolution of their Superficiall parts or from Submarine or Subterraneall eruptions The Terrheinos or Land Brises between the Tropics which last from the first approaches of Night till Morning consist for the most part of terrestrial Fumes perspiring from no greater depth then the Solar rays did before penetrate And those which alternately blow in the day time are the Ofsprings of the Sea when the Celestial warmth attenuates the liquid Surface into Winds For Humid bodys are soon agitated and Volatilis'd by heat as might appeare from that Vulgar but very considerable Experiment of the Aeolipile by which the strang Sagacity of Art do's so clearly interpret to us the operations of Nature that wee may without difficulty conceive the most forcible emotions of Wind to be generated from the Rarefaction of water Some have us'd them instead of Bellows and contriv'd Pneumatiek Inventions of this Nature to blow the Fire Others have made them large enough to turn the Wheels of spits For the force of the Wind will be greater or lesse Proportionably to the bigness of the Vessel Thus we may Imagine the Atmosphere to be as one Immense Aeolipile continually dilating the Vapors and Air and the Sun likewise to exhale many flatulent steams out of the Marshes and Lakes especially from the Sea which is the most Universall Parent not only of Fountains and Rivers but Winds And though the subtlety of Nature will still exceed the most Accurate Researches of Human wit yet wee have little more to enquire concerning the Naturall then may be advantageously Explicated from the Artificiall Winds Nor doe they only exhale from the Superficies but emerge sometimes from the Gulfs of the Ocean and Profoundest Caverns of the Earth The Earth is the first Mother of Meteors and contains the Principles of them all in her Fruitfull Womb In these Subterraneall Kingdomes are the Spirits Minerals and juyces that afterwards raise Storms by Sea Winds and Thunders in the Air and Earthquakes under Ground Those that have been conversant in Colepits and Mines will frequently predict Tempests from their Damps the burning blew of their candles and other infallible signes From hence these Subterraneall Storms break prison to disturbe the peace of the Atmosphere and raise mutinyes and commotions in the whole body of the Air. My Lord Bacon mentions a rocky and Mountainous place in Wales calld Aber Barry which had many Caverns and recesses under ground where is heard a continuall noise of Winds that resound and tumultuate within And in another place of Denbigh shire there are so vehement eruptions of Wind out of some cavityes and spiracles of the Earth that repell cloths and other injected bodyes and for a great way together dally and play with them
in the Air. But among innumerable Examples I could produce of this Nature one out of the Philosophicall Transactions quadrates exactly to our purpose Numb 26. pag. 481. anno 1667. It was then given in to the Royall Society as the result of twenty yeers experience from a Person well vers'd in Minerall affaires He affirm'd If in digging under ground the workmen meet with Water they never want Air or Wind But if they misse it they are destitute of convenient Air either to breath in or make their Candles burn Sometimes there bappens to be a great quantity of Winters standing Water in their Mines but as soon as the levell is made and any part of the Water begins to run away the men must secure themselves as well as they can For the included Air or Wind breaks forth with violence to carry all before it They have Burning Mountains in China that are said to raise Tempests The same Accounts wee have of the Grottos in Calabria Sicily and many places about the Alps. And I think it not lesse considerable what the learned Peter Gassendus assures us of a Mountaine in Provence which had a Visto thorough it like Pausilyponeer Naples from whence a Northerly Wind on one side and a Southerly on the other have been observ'd to break forth at the same time I have heard that in Cornwall they have so sure Prognosticks of Storms at Sea from their Mines that the Fishermen never Presume to tarry out when the signal is given by the Eruption of certain Meteors which immediately Presage a Tempest There are almost as many instanof this kind as wee find Cranies or receptacles of Air under ground Questionlesse these Cavernous retreats are very often the Locall origin's of Wind where the Poets faign the Kingdome of Aeolus not Unphilosophically alluding to the mode of their Production Winds that are generated in the Cloysters of the Earth are for the generality made up of Waters dilated by the Subterraneall Fires Kircher among many other Romantick Suggestions on this Argument adds that colliquated Snows and Raine sinking into the ground doe sometimes expell and force out the Winds and Air. Yet not only Water but most bodys will be mov'd and Volatilis'd by Heat Especially the Nitrosulphureous and other Minerall or Metallic Concretes that are easily resolvible into Fumes either by Rarefaction from some Intestine Vulcano or by that glowing and Potentiall Heat which is no where wanting in the bowels of the Earth If you mingle together Nitre Sal Armoniac crude Antimony c. and macerating them all in salt Water set the vessel over the Fire the Fumes will issue out much after the manner of our Aeolipiles which shows what may be likewise effected when the same causes concurre in the Subterraneall World Some also haue conjectur'd that Winds oftentimes break from under the Ocean because the waves are observ'd to rise and gently to curle and furrow the Seas on that side whence it is next to blow Or if the included spirit be in greater plenty it sometimes dashes the waves against the rocks with so great violence that the noise may be heard in some places no lesse then 8 or 10 leagues I am credibly inform'd that in St. Owens Bay belonging to the Isle of Jersey the Sea is often strangly disturb'd before the Western storms even when the Air is very calme and though no Wind be stirring yet the roaring of the waves may be heard not only over the whole Isle but into France about 30 miles distance which is the certain Prognostique of an ensuing tempest And those suddain tumors which happen in the rivers of Garonne or Dourdongn neer Bourdeaux seem to be the effects of intestine winds swelling them into ridges mountains of water which they call Mascarets are so terrible to them that sayl in the river that when they perceive them coming the people cry out Garde le Mascaret Garde le Mascaret and then the watermen immediatly make to the shoare to save their lives for it inevitably threatens the overturning their boats It happens only in Summer and in the greatest tranquillity of the Air but is often follow'd by wind Something like these Mascarets though from a different cause are the suddain turgences of the river Severn which they call'd Higram Scaliger in his Exercit. speaks of a Sea towards the Gulfe of Lions which is frequently so raging when there is no sensible Wind to irritate it that the Adjacent Countrys might justly fear a deluge the waves seeming to rise above the shoars In like manner the Italian Benacus or Lago de Garda and more especially that neer Geneva is oftentimes troubled in the calmest days which is questionless nothing but an Included Spirit or Wind though the inhabitants ignorantly impute it to witch-craft This Sub-marine Tempest is by some called Procella Caeca and by the Portugals La Manca when they see it break out in a Cloud or Mist from under the VVater I supersede many remarks from our Sea voyages and some others out of Beregard and Kircher and shall instance only in two The one recited by Fromundus from the testimony of the Learned Fienus who in a calme and serene day diverting himself on the Belgique shoare perceived a dense mist suddainly to rise from the Ocean which though very inconsiderable in the begining he saw it encrease and diffuse it self by degrees till it covered the face of the Heaven and ended in a most Dreadfull tempest at last and what can be more Admirable in the whole history of Nature then that so small a Vapo'r should fill the spacious Atmosphere swell the Seas into Mountains and mingle all things with horro'r and night The other is set down by Mr. Boyle to whom the learned world is so much obliged for his curiosity in all Naturall inquiries and I shall insert it from the pen of the Honourable Author Some years since neer the strong fortress of Duncannon where divers of the ships Royall of England lying at Anchor in a place where they apprehended no danger from the Wind there seemed suddainly to ascend out of the water not farr from them a black Cloud in shape and bigness not much unlike a barrell which was not long after followed as the most experienc'd Pilot foretold by so hideous a storme as forc'd those shipps to goe to Sea again and had like to have cast them away and this account was written by the principall Officers to their Superiors in England c. We can by no means distrust the matter of fact which had almost as many witnesses to confirme it as there were men in the Navall Army and we are sufficiently informed from this memorable event how farr the Sub marine eruptions may be concern'd in the production of stormy winds I proceed to the 3d Generall Cause which is their Descension or Repercussion from the middle Region of the Air. This opinion seems most a justed to the vulgar hypothesis though the Prince
of the Schooles rather ascribes the oblique progression of Winds to the Rapidity and Circumgyration of the Heavenly Motions which he expressely asserts in the second book of his Meteors 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. That their motion is impres'd from above c. Yet Alexander Aphrod urges against the sense of Aristotle that upon this supposition the whole current of Air would always be carried from East to VVest by the diurnall revolution of the Primum mobile and so the VVinds could never chang to any other point of the Compass with many insupportable difficulties which put the Moderns upon new methods of resolving the Phaenomenon The Peripatetiques though by no encouragement from the Text of Aristotle hold that the Repulse or Antiperistasis which the hot and dry exhalations meet with by rancountring the cold Clouds causeth their resilition downwards and impresses that oblique motion on the VVinds. But the most learned of our present age have so little regard for the doctrine of Antiperistasis as it 's usually maintain'd in the Schooles that they endeavour to explicate this and all other appearances in Nature without it and the Lord Verulam himself being averse to this Caprice of the Scholastic Doctors declares the Repercussion of Winds from the cold of the Middle Region to be of all other the vainest and most Irrationall Hypothesis However I deny not but Winds are frequently generated in the 2 d Region of the Air sometimes from vapor's before and otherwhile after their coalition into Clouds The Prognostics of these is a trembling and murmur of the woods the shooting of Starrs Halos about the Moon All which indicate a repletion of the Atmosphere with exhalations that afterwards descend and are converted into Wind yet the cause of their relapse to the Earth is no repercussion from that Imaginary Antiperistasis but the Ingenit gravity of the vapors themselvs at least the pressure and detrusion of the superincumbent Air which I suppose to ly in severall fleeces or storys one above another and presse down the inferior that when the VVinds chance to gravitate comparatively more then the vapors neer the surface of the Earth they to preserve the just Counterpoise of the Atmosphere must necessarily descend of their own accord The gravity of Air especially Wind which is a body farre more Heterogeneous and impure can be no paradox to the learned of our times since the many noble disquisitions about the pressure and weight of the Atmosphere made by Mr. Boyl and other curious Persons Our Sea-men commonly observe it to blow from that quarter where they see one or more Clouds gather above the Horizon Either that they presse more then at other times or because the matter of which they consist is afterwards dissolvible into VVinds. Those Clouds from the rupture and dissolution of which wee are to expect suddain gusts hang more loose and floating being commonly of a brighter colour and neither so dense or opacous as the other which are pregnant with showres It appears from the precedent discourses that VVinds do not only emerge from the Aeolian Caues but have a much sublimer origine in the Kingdom of Meteors being generated both in the Lower and Middle Regions at least consist of the gross Air and vapors that are driven from thence and though after their relapse to the earth they are indifferently dispos'd to what ever species of Agitation yet generally they begin their march towards that quarter whither the most Violent Impulse is made at least where they find the medium more yeilding and fittest to propagate their motions As sometimes the Atmosphere is thinnest towards the South which begets a North-Wind other while in the West and then the protrusion is likewise made Westward Or if the whole current bend with too great violence towards one point it oftentimes recoyls back again and begets a quite contrary Wind to the former Thus wee often observe that when one Wind ceases the Opposite begins the Atmosphere which in many things bears a great resemblance to liquids has these kind of fluxes refluxes like the Rivers and Seas For Air is a body so fluid and tractable so easily susceptible of them and long retentive of the least impressions that if it once be set a going it as a kind of perpetuall Automat continues the motion is drawn into consort with the vapors and it selfe converted into VVind If we make a further enquiry into the cause of their motions we shall find they proceed likewise according to the disposition of the Aliment and those which have no durable Fonds dwindle away and are soon exhausted in their course sometimes they condense into Clouds and otherwhile being too much attenuated and refind they vanish and dissipate in the Air. Those VVinds which are neerest their Locall Origines blow hardest especially such as are reinforc't by other auxiliary Vapors as they passe Acosta observed they were always most turbulent neer the shoars and promontories of the Indies because the flatulent steams were then more impetuous neer their rise which afterwards became languishing and broken by a long passage in the Ocean So that there are severall accidents which may occasion the greater rage and impetuosity of VVinds As first the Plenty of Matter which constitutes them secondly the Rarity of the Medium that affords no considerable obstacles to stop their career Orlastly because the Protrusion of the Air is more forcible stronger then at other times Thus farre wee have employ'd our thoughts concerning their first Fountains or Locall Origin's in Generall The Formall Cause or essentiall Attribute of Winds is their Transverse Motion For Air is no longer Wind then it's Agitated and Mov'd and therefore Homer was not so good a Philosopher as some of his Scholiasts would make us believe who shut them up in Ulysses his bottle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the swift course of the Tempestuous Wind Close in a leather bottle he confind The Causes of their oblique Progression has so farre engag'd the most Philosophicall Genius'es of former times that Bodinus at length not knowing what to determine among such Variety of opinions ascribes it to the Energy of Angels And the College of Conimbra to the Immediate influx of the Divine Power Kepler will needs have the Earth Animated and to breath out Winds from the Subterraneall Caverns as from it's Nostrils or Mouth Theophrastus in his book which he Entitles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phancy'd the Winds to be partly of an Igneous Nature still aspiring upwards and partly made up of Terrestriall Exhalations which endeavour to Descend that by this means they were forc'd to direct their Course Obliquely between two Contrary Motions VVhich seems to me lesse Plausible then the Doctrine of Aristotle though I think it would be equally difficult to explain how the rapid gyration of the Celestiall bodys could create those violent impressions on the Air VVinds at
that immense distance from the Earth It would be tedious to recite the dissents of the Greek interpreters with the Latines how many nauseating and frivolous contests arose upon this Argument between Theophrastus Aphrodisaeus the School of Alexandria and in the more flourishing raign of Peripatetisme how strangely did Albertus Magnus Thomas Aquinas Cajetan and Contarenus with many others of the Seraphic and Angelicall Doctors torture their wits either to find out some new Salvo for the Hypothesis of Aristotle or invent a worse of their own Bonaventure writ a whole book wherein he treats of little else beside the severall opinions concerning the Transverse motion of Wind. And we must needs esteeme it a great effect of their leisure who have employd so much time in such empty and jejune speculations Yet not only the Peripatetiques have fail'd in their attempts but we have as little satisfaction from Epicurus or the severe Porch may as justly question whether the Theories which shall be started hereafter must hope for any better successe Yet I think wee may thus farr rationally conclude that as the causes of Winds are various so the reason of their Transverse Motions is not always one and the same I have frequently observed that not only the North but most other Winds seem many times rather somewhat to descend then blow in an exact Perpendicular line to the Horizon yet wee must acknowledge that even those which relapse from the Middle Region or are generated by the Rarefaction of Vapors in the Intermediate space between the Earth and Clouds have for the most part an oblique or Semicircular Motion for though their Ingenit weight would rather Praecipitate them to the Earth yet they are either born up and repel'd by the continuall Effluxions of ascending Steams or at least can descend no lower then where they come to the just counterpoise of the Air. So that if the Flatulent Vapors have gravity enough especially after they are Condens'd in the Colder Region to invite them Downward and yet the resistence of the Atmosphere sufficient in a great measure to check and retard their descent this must necessarily divert them from their Precipice inclining them rather to a mixt and Collaterall Motion For though Winds are generally heavyer then the Air below yet they are supported in it during their Career till by degrees falling downwards to the Earth they at length cease or languish in their Course Wee must note likewise that the whole body of the Air settles about the Earth in a sphericall Figure so that the protrusion is made from all parts to the Center that the Winds being resisted by the Pressure of the Atmosphere above and the Earth or Sea below move as in a Channell between both wherefore they soare highest in a Serene Skye when the depression of the Air and Winds is much lesse then in Cloudy weather And the reason why they blow Obliquely or which is all one perpendicularly to the Horizon is not to be suppos'd because the Vapors are naturally determin'd to any such particular species of Agitation but that being dilated by the Sun they require a larger space and find the Medium most dispos'd to admit of their Motions in that manner Lastly those VVinds which emerge from the Caverns under Ground may sometimes have that Tranverse Motion impres'd on them from their Fountains at the time of their Eruption For those Volatile spirits or Salts being once mov'd in the Hollows of the Earth by the Subterraneall warmth are still roving up and down and restlesse till they get vent and after their release protrude the Contiguous Air and propagate the same kind of Agitation in whatever bodys occurre in the way and then all Auxiliary Vapors will be sure to have Immediate recourse whither the strongest current bends But beside these Primitive and Originall there are other Secundary causes and Affections of VVinds as their Undulation Repercussion from Promontorys Opposition c. VVee have thus farre enquir'd into the Progressive but the Undulating Motions are no lesse considerable in VVinds for they blow not in one constant fluor or streame but in gusts that have their starts and intervals intermitting like our pulse which is call'd the Undulation of VVind or Air from the resemblance it bears to the wavings and fluctuation of VVaters Some of them are Indigenae or Natives and others Adventitious to the places where they blow yet the question still recurrs for those which are Externs and either come from beyond Sea or rove from farre countrys have the same Locall Origine with the rest though remoter from our observation The motions of VVinds as indeed all other bodys whatever are propagated in right lines if nothing intervene to check and retard their course but usually so many impediments occurre that are able to make resistence in the way that they seldome proceed in one uninterrupted Perpendicular from their fountains Especially in moutanous places Forrests and other Eminencys and inequalitys of Ground but they are repuls'd and recoyl back again and being sometimes imprison'd in the straits or Creeks of promontorys they are tost and banded to and fro like Tennis balls till they find their passage out so that after severall diversions it may happen at last that a VVind may bee distracted to a quite different point of the compasse and otherwhile so far befreinded by the advantageous situations of the places where they blow that they run streaming between two Mountains as in a Channell or trough and are guarded on all sides from the inroads of other Exotique VVinds and Air. Upon this account it s no very unusuall thing to have one VVind blow on the Top of a Mountain and a quite contrary in the Vally below In the main Sea they keep the same quarter a long time when nothing occurrs that can controle them but neer mountainous Islands or shoares they whiffle up and down and shift from one point of the Compasse to another by severall repercussions from the promontorys or hills and these our Seamen call Eddy Winds For as Water once dismis'd from the Fountains head is not only tinctur'd with the qualities it receiv'd from thence but must afterwards conform to the course of the Channell or banks through which it glides so the VVinds which are Torrents or Rivulets of Air have their Maeanders and deflections in their Journy and are in a great measure obnoxious to the situation of the Country 's in which they blow They also meet with frequent opposition from the repletion of the Atmosphere with multitudes of fresh Exhalations that check and crosse them in their way but especially by their Rancounters with Contrary Winds which must necessarily Engage and strive for mastery till one overcomes So that from two contrary VVinds there sometimes results a Third compounded of both Extremes and otherwhile if they meet in the Eye of each other from Diametrically opposite points of the Compasse they ballance one another and there ensues a calme
and Universall Brise because it blows constantly from the Eastern Points and makes no farre excursions beyond the Tropiques commonly meeting our ships about the 30 34 and in Summer oftentimes beyond the 36 degree of N. Latitude always proportionably to the declination of the Sun On this side the line they sit most at N. East and on the other at South East or the points between the South and East Now what Universall cause can afford such immense magasins of vapors where can be the Locall origines of these perenniall VVinds which imitate the circulation of the Heavens Or happily the disciples of Copernicus will conclude that they depend on the diurnall motion of the Earth which passing from East to West in the space of 24 houres may by that violent rotation seduce with it the adjacent Air in one constant fluor or streame For wee observe that the Winds in some Seas change with the currents or tydes and if so small a force can vary the motions of the Air how much more may wee expect from the rapid circumgyration of the whole Terraqueous globe De Cartes speaking of these Levant Winds in his discourse of Meteors says Commode ratio deduci nequeat nisi Universi fabrica simul explicetur This opinion I confesse is wholly built on the Copernican Hypothesis yet if the Heavens move and the Earth stand still according to the Vulgar and more receiv'd system of the world wee may render a no lesse rationall account of the Phaenomenon from other solid grounds For supposing the heat to be farre more intense to exhale and sollicit vapors between the Tropiques when the Sun is Verticall and the rays fall at right angles to the Earth This must needs set vast multitudes of vapors a-float both from Sea and Land which may be sufficient to furnish materials for the Generall Wind but then an objection may as easily bee started why these Vapors or Winds still keep in the road of the Sun why should they not sometimes slant aside and make their deflexions towards the Poles I answer the resistence of the Atmosphere is greater being remoter from the middle of the world and the immediate jurisdiction of the Sun beams that the winds are as it were wall'd in on both sides by the grosser vapors beyond the Tropiques and so forced to attend on the solar motions where the channell is open and the Air more yielding and refin'd by the continuall heat Nay even in our Seas when no other Winds are stirring you may often perceive a small Air still accompanying the course of the Sun and it 's remarquable in dead calms that both the Fanes of ships weathercocks by land generally hang Westward This may receive some Elucidation from a very obvious experiment of an iron bullet heated and drawn over the surface of water that presently invites the the ambient Air to follow the same course as wee may discover by a feather or other versatil body suspended above the VVater that will have an immediate tendency the same way where the medium being attenuated by the heated iron becomes more pervions and rare which methinks may be of some validity to explicate why these Universall Winds have that constant complyance and uniformity with the course of the Sun They are likewise accompany'd with a perpetuall motion of the Seas from East to VVest for the Currents of Air and water are inseparable companions both in the South seas the Pacifique and Indian Ocean And as the tydes are driven from the shoars and returne in a thousand Eddys and tortuous Meanders from the land In like manner the VVinds though they chance to be frequently repuls't by the promontorys and higher Islands that like shoars impede the Atmosphericall currents yet generally between the Tropiques the motions of the Seas and VVinds make their perennial progresse the same way Some are pleas'd to think that the Sun in their Zenith do's so farre excavate and absorbe the parts of the subjacent Ocean that the waters immediately follow as in a channell from East to West But Vossiius De Motu Maris Vent on the contrary do's as eagerly contend that the Celestial beams doe by dilating the waters rather cause a greater turgency and protuberance on their superficies which therefore subside towards the Occident where the passage is more declive till it be likewise elated by the approach of the Sun From the same principles he endeavours the solution of the Universall Winds that the Air rises highest where the Solar rays fall at more direct angles and then like the Seas begin their course Westward of which he assigns no other cause then as before Quia lege naturae ab altioribus ad decliviora fit motus quod enim Aequor id ipsum patitur Aer huic incumbens So perfectly Analogous are the motions of Air to those of Water that the Winds are almost Universally govern'd by the Hydrostatique Laws However I shall no longer propose my conjecturall thoughts concerning the cause of this abstruse Phaenomenon but chuse rather to entertain the Curious with some nicer observations which have been made both by the English and Dutch that by this means though I dare not boast the invention of New Hypotheses yet I may be able to cast in my mite towards the perfecting an history of nature I was lately enquiring of a very skilfull navigator what variations he observ'd of the Trade Winds in his voyages to the West Indies Who readily complying with my desires sent me this following account The Trade Winds have their Variations as well as others though not so much For betwixt the Tropiques where wee are at the greatest certainty they differ two or three points Their most certain points are the N E. by N. and N E. by E. I have observ'd both outward and homeward bound that as wee came Northerly so wee had the more Easterly Winds in the same Latitude As for example outward bound in the Latitudes of 20 21 22 and 23 neere the Tropique of Cancer and in the Longitudes of 52. 53. and 54. beginning the said Longitude at the Meridian of London I say there wee found the Winds at E. N. E. and E. by N. and E. and sometimes E. and by S. and E. S. E. so likewise homeward bound sayling along the North side of Cuba in the same Latitudes above mention'd neere the Tropique wee found the Winds upon the same points as a foresaid though there were 35 degrees of Longitude difference but after wee have passed these Latitudes and sayling neere the line wee shall then find the Trade Winds to incline more towards the N. E. as is above declared But what I could not so particularly collect from many reviews of our Seamens Journals I find an Inquisitive Person has observ'd in two severall Voyages to the East Indies That from 34 degrees of N. Lat. towards the coast of Afric or about the Meridian of the Canaries the Winds seldome vary above two points from
so carefully guarded from the Air cause flesh to rot and upon all accounts hasten putrefaction in bodys The Western have been Counted the mildest most Auspicious of all others and were so highly in favour with the Poets that they thought them worthy of the Golden Age and to refresh the Elysian groves They are indeed cherishing to Animals they cause fertility in the Earth and paint the flowry meades with all the verdant beautys of the spring But though the Breathing Zephyrs are so much celebrated in Poems and Romances and happily were kinder to the delicious Countrys of Italy Greece yet wee find no lesse malignity in their natures from particular accidents and climats then what wee have observ'd of other Winds In the Isle of Jersy as I was lately inform'd by an ingenious Gentleman of that place they Taint and Blast all the plants and trees except the white poplar which flourishes best in those Winds and suffer nothing to grow a good distance from the Western shoare when the Midland of the Country and all other parts even to the Brink of the Ocean is very fruitfull and universally planted They have an observation there when it rises on a suddain instorms it continu's for 9 days or thereabout They blow in this Isle the greatest part of the year but chiefly about the Aequinoxes and particularly in Autumn when they are very boystrous having nothing to checque their rage between that and America and these they call the Michaelmas storms Beside what is said of this Island the same effects are known in Normandy and many parts of our British Coasts especially towards Cornwal and the Lands End but they render the Norman shoare inhabitable by reason of the sand they blow over it where are few or no Trees to be seen neer the Sea and those very shrubs When they take a point of the North they are worst but not long lasting The greatest VVinds which have been known of late years were either Westerly or from the Collaterall points between the West and North. One about the Death of Oliver Cromwell And another famous for demolishing so many houses and buildings which in diverse places it levell'd to the ground It did considerable Damage to most of the Colleges in Oxon blew down two and twenty Elms in the Grove of Trin. Coll. and severall of the strongest Fabricks in England Scap't not without some marks of it's violence For many of those houses which either by their strength or situation were able to resist it's furious assaults lost their roofs or had their chimnys and barns blown down But that which makes it still memorable in most parts of the Kingdome was the great numbers of Trees and sturdy Oaks that fell in this Tempest You might see the Spoiles of the Villages and woods all the Country round An event scarce to be paralleld in the former Age and which would require a large History to transmit all the particulars thereof to posterity The Westerly Winds are oftentimes thus Tempestuous in England and Flanders which receive their first efforts from the wide Seas where they bring terrible storms sometimes Snow and then in large Flakes but usually in the spring time rain especially the S. W. which are the most Humid and Pluvious because they travell by Sea many thousand miles and must needs wet their wings in so long a flight or'e the Western Ocean By some writers they are esteem'd Gelid and Moist but with us they are warmer then the East or North either because they consist of the tepid vapors and Air which are heated by the declining Sun or that being Sea-Winds they are therefore generally hotter in the Temperate Zones then those which blow off the Land Lastly the Northerly Winds in these parts of Europe are accounted Cold and Dry by reason they arrive from the Frigid climats of the North and consist for the most part of resolv'd snows and ice They cause a sude and serene sky dispersing the Clouds wherefore Boreas in Homer is styl'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Serenator Boreas yet in Africa they cause rain and are moyster then the South which according to the complexion of those Countrys has a greater degree of siccity and heat In some places of Holland Flanders where they gather the vapors from the German or Scotish Seas the N. Winds often bring with them Cloudy and wet weather And wee have known as great falls of rain here in England the VVind being at N. and N. E. but then it usually continued at S. or S. W. for some days before So I have supected that those vapors Clouds which were gather'd and blown over by the Southerly were afterward reduc'd back again by the Northerly VVinds. They render the Northern men vegete and healthfull to extreme old age by hindring the exilition of the spirits when as the Africans are old at 40 where the continuall heat opens the pores and suffers the vitall flame to transpire That which makes the Fortunate Islands truly so is the kind salute from the Northern VVinds after they have been somewhat heated in their progresse towards the South The gates of Citys in the opinion of the wisest Architects ought always to be directed towards the North and the situation of Tornay in Flanders is celebrated by Fromundus upon that account Hippocrates prescrib'd the N. Wind as the greatest Antidote against the plague in Greece and Varro is said to have preserv'd his whole family during the raging plague at Corcyra by stoping up the windows towards the South and giving free admission to the Northern Air. Yet one of the Ancient Phycitians gives a worse Character of the Northerly Winds That they cause acute pains and defluxions from the head to the Stomack Breed the Stone and stop the passages of the Ureters hinder the Transpiration of those peccant juyces which nature endeavours to throw off from the Blood and produce many more distempers which are reckon'd the effects of Siccity or cold They are searching and Astringent scarce to be endur'd by those who have infirme habits of body and yet agreable to healthfull and robust constitutions Sir Walter Raleigh in his voyage to Guiana takes notice that neer the Coast of Brasil they had one half of the yeare Northerly and in the other part Southerly VVinds And further towards the South in the Kingdomes of Magellana and Chili they have them the whole year round Southerly which raign most in the Tropique of Capricorn as the North Winds at Island and those Countrys which lye neere the North Pole especially in the VVinter so that the Hollanders which winter'd in Nova Zembla during the whole time had Northerly Winds Thus the Sun as he approaches either of the Tropiques subtiliseth the Air driving away the grosser Exhalations into the Frigid Zones where they are laid up in vast Magazines till winter but then the spaces being able to contain no more they Circulate again to the middle of the World For the Solar
that some of the Vertuosi who pretend to great skill in ordering of Cidar find by experience that certain Winds set it a fermenting more then others and render it turbid and thick so that when they perceive them coming to such a Point of the compasse they critically observe the just time for botling it to prevent these inconveniences Rules have been prescrib'd to Drudgsters and Apothecarys upon this account for the preserving their Medicines and happily some remarks might be taken from Cabinet-makers joyners and other Mechanicall Artists in the drying and seasoning their Materials that might conduce a fuller History of VVinds. Lastly it would be no lesse beneficiall to the Advancement of Naturall knowledge to detect the Falsity of those Assertions which have been long receiv'd in the world from the great reputation of their Authors As for example those which are set down by Aristotle in the second of his Meteors and in the book of Problems where he endeavours to explicate severall Phaenomena of the Air and Winds as in the first Section Probl. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 19. 23. and in the Twenty sixth Section Prob. 3. 9. 13. 14. 15. 16. 18. 21. 22. 25. 37. 38. 40. 42. 48. 49. 56. 58. which I mention more particularly because I find My Lord Bacon in his Chapter concerning the Qualities of VVinds follows exactly the traces of Aristotle and the generallity of Peripatetique writers have made it their Non Ultra daring to adventure no further in these enquiries then was prescrib'd to them by that Great Genius of Nature So likewise the sentiments of Theophrastus deliver'd in his Book of VVinds and the rest of the Ancient Placits ought to be more thoroughly examin'd before we receive them for infallible many things in Pliny that relate to this Argument might be considerable were they not suspected to be generally false But since the too great Veneration of Antiquity has impos'd so many Vulgar Errors on the credulous world it will be the most generous design first to free our minds from those prejudices we have taken up from Tradition and upon this foundation to superstruct a more Reall and Experimentall Philosophy I have only mention'd some few observations of that infinite Variety with which this fruitfull Argument will entertain the Curious And so from their Causes and Qualities proceed to the Prognostiques of Winds First we might enquire what the radiant sanguine pallid nubilous or other Appearances of the Sun signify to the predictions of VVinds. What the Age or Eclipse of the Moon the picked or obtuse figure the greater resplendency of the Lunar Horns or the Conjunction of it with other Planets likewise Halos about the Sun or Moon the shooting or twinkling of Starrs c. whether these may be accounted Prognostiques of VVinds In like manner if the Sun seem bigger then ordinary or dart more refulgent Beams or if it rise in a Cloud of the same Colour c. All these different Appearances of the Heavenly Bodys proceed chiefly from refraction the visual rays being distorted by the Density of the Medium and the collection of those rorid and nebulous vapors in the Air that cause these unusuall perceptions in our sense may first generate Halos and afterward descend in Tempests or VVinds. Some prognosticate from Comets and Eclipses and it would be farther worth our remarque what connexion there is between certain species of Thunder or Lightnings and Wind what predictions may be taken from the colours motion and as it were Severall storys and ranges of Clouds or the suddain appearance of any Single one above the Horizon in an extraordinary serene and peacefull sky as wee observe in Tornados Others have been no lesse superstitious from the suddain palenes of Fires from the roaring of the Sea from the resounding of Echos or a noise heard from the shoars which happens many times before the Levants blow in the Mediterranean or if there be a Murmur in the Mountains or Clouds without Thunder or if the Sea seeme to rise or swell in those places where there is no sensible VVind to irritate it Some have employ'd their curiosity in making praedictions from Birds and Water-Fowle from Ravens and Crows the playing of Porpuses and Dolphins the spinning of Spiders the leaping of Fishes above the water c. Innumerable of this nature may be had from Aristotle Paduanius Petrus de Medina Ricciolus Fournier though for the most part fallible and uncertain we might offer at the Philosophicall reasons of some Prognostiques but those which have any evident connexion between the causes effects may be solu'd from the former Discourses But as I before noted the great Inequalities in the superficies of the Earth the severall obstacles and repercussions from mountains the different Situations of the places and Medium's in which they blow the distance of those Countries from the Poles of the World Their respects to the course of the Sun whether they comply with or resist the Naturall Motion of the Air from East to West c have so many intricate nice speculations that it will be hard to lay down any perfect Theory of Winds Yet certain it is that most mutations which happen in the Air either as to heat cold or such like qualities are chiefly occasion'd by the diversities of Winds which for the time they blow are the Soveraign Lords of the Atmosphere and influence and dispose of it as they please Beside this they help to sustaine or dissolve the clouds they ventilate and purifie the Stagnant Air preserving it from Putrefaction and by this means are the greatest Benefactors to Mankind Their Number and Distribution has been very different in the time of Homer only 4 of Strabo 6 of Andronicus Chyrrestes 8 though in strictness we may suppose as many severall sorts of Winds as points in the whole Horizontall Arch. The Romans came to 12 others have very aptly multiply'd their number to 16 4 answering to the Cardinall points of the Heaven and 3 Collaterall between every Cardinall Wind But the Moderns since the encrease of Navigation have divided their Compass into 32 points known in these Parts by the Dutch or German names and by the Italian in the Mediterranean Seas A Prosecution of the former discourses concerning Whirlewinds in generall with an Historicall Account of the Tornados Hurracanes and other Tempestuous Winds THe Peripatetique Philosophy constitutes no considerable difference between Lightning and Whirlewinds only that the matter of the first is more tenuous and rare and the other made up of grosser and Heterogeneous parts VVe might explicate this Phaenomenon more advantagiously if we suppose a Spirit like that of Nitre to be discharg'd with a very violent Collision or Displosion from one Cloud which meeting with another suffers a repulse so causes that Rotation which Aristotle styles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Third of his Meteorologics assigns this cause for it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so that the spirit or VVind being
pent up and straightned in a narrow space and finding no passage out recoyles and whirls about in a Circle for though the progresse thereof would be naturally direct in which all motion once begun is continued if there be no impediment as De Cartes often observes yet the density resistence of the Cloud gives it an oblique or Vortiginous Motion Aristotle supposes that the Heat retiring upwards condenses the Cloud above and therefore the eruption is made towards the Earth possibly we may rather impute it to the Cold and Pressure of the Incumbent Air or that the Cloud by reason of it's Gravity more easily gives way downward and so descending in this kind of Circular motion absorbs whatever shall happen within the Vortex VVhirlwinds are divided into severall species and have acquir'd different Appellations according to the Diversity of the Matter Motion or Distraction of the Cloud They are very particularly set down by Pliny who makes the Genus to all of them Ecnephias or Procella which if it Circulate and cause a gyration in the Air is call'd Typhon and sometimes if it breaks out with great violence and noise Turbo But if by the strugling or rotation of the included spirit in the descent it chanc'd to be inflam'd it was styl'd by the Grecians Prester and if the Flame be exceedingly rarify'd and innocent they call'd it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we may suppose to consist of a substance not unlike the most Rectify'd Spirit of Wine So that Prester comprises not only the Ecnephias but has the Vortiginous Motion of the Typhon beside it is inflam'd and is therefore Typhon accensus as the other Vibratus Ecnephias All which descriptions are well adjusted to the sense of Aristotle The Stoics held that the Typhon was somewhat ignite that the Prester was made up of Hotter but the Typhon of more Rarify'd matter Seneca describes Lightning to be a very vehement and the Prester a more rarifyd Flame Epicurus allows of no Fiery eruption out of the Clouds but Lightning Now we may imagine that the Nitro-Sulphureous or other Mineral Spirits being pent in and besieged by an obstinate Cloud and finding no way out at last both from the Continuall rotation of the Subtil Matter within and compression by the Air or VVinds from without may by long strugling set themselves at liberty and violently rend off some part of the Cloud which falling into the Sea causes Tempests and the Sinking of ships there-upon is likewise denominated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because after the Fall it commonly causes a Whirlpool in the water This Ecnephias oftentimes subverts houses and tares up trees by the roots and it 's usual to see Cocks of Hay elevated by it and as it were dancing in the Air. For bodys no more solid then Clouds being charg'd with such Spirits or Salts not less active and impetuous then Gunpowder may by their violent Agitation from some contrary Currents of VVind cause these kind of Eddys in the Atmosphere which is subject to so many inequalities and vicissitudes sometimes from the condensation of vapours by Cold and otherwhile by the rarefaction of them from extraordinary Heat So that there must needs follow strange disorders and Whirlwinds by what means soever the Tension or Compression of the Air becomes greater then the Dimensions thereof will naturally permit The Tornados are variable Winds call'd in the Portugall lan-language Travados but most significantly by the Greeks Ecnephias from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nubes for their surest Prognostique is a Thick Cloud suddainly rising above the Horison which is easily visible in those Countries where the Air is generally defecate and serene The Cloud for its smalnes at first was called Olho de Boy the Bulls-Eye yet this from so insensible a beginning diffuses it selfe by degrees and at last covering the whole Face of the Heavens with a Canopy of darknes causes horrible storms Thunder and Lightning swels the raging Seas up to the Clouds which pow'r them down in Deluges of Rain falling rather in huge Cascades and by Bucket-fuls then drops sometimes together with Hailstones of prodigious bulk so variable and unsteady are the Tornado-Winds so little obliged to any certain law that they commonly shift all the Points of the Compass in the space of an houre blowing in such suddain and impetuous gusts that a ship which was ready to overset on one side is no lesse dangerously assaulted on the other sometimes they shift without intermission otherwhile they blow in starts so that you shall have a perfect calme between every puff Let a fleet of ships saile as near as they can without falling fowl on each other and they shall have severall and contrary VVinds You shall be alarm'd with many of them in the same day most towards the coasts of Africk for halfe an houre or three quarters at a time and were they equally lasting as impetuous few would be invited thither by the Guiny gold or venture to crosse the Line for the richest Merchandise of the East Our Seamen commonly meet with the Tornados from the 10 th sometimes the 11 th 12 th degr of N. Lat. likewise in the Tropick of Capricorne near the Promontory of Cape Bon Esperance where the fatall cloud rises as only a small spot in the Air and then displaies it self spreading like a Carpet or'e the top of the Mountain which the Sea-men espying though in the calmest weather immediatly furle their sails and provide for the ensuing storme that not long after descends in lightning and Winds being the more terrible because it begins with the utmost fury at first and the changes of the points suddain as the twinkling of an eye You shall have a treacherous Calme a dreadfull tempest and in an houres space the skye clear again and the Sea smooth as glass The Portugues in their discoveries of the Orientall Indies lost 9 ships out of 12 which were overset by the Prodigious impetuosity of these suddain Gusts But we seldome heare of such disasters now adays our Sea-men being more expert to govern themselves in these dangerous attacques and always jealous of surprise in the African Seas For the nearer you are to the Coasts of Africk as was observ'd by an inquisitive Traveller of late in the Philosophicall Transactions so much more dreadfull is the Thunder and Rain but the further Westward you goe the Thunder and Rain will be lesse and the Winds not so uncertain so that if you goe as farre West as the Meridian of the East side of Brasile there is little Thunder neither doth the VVind come down in such suddain Puffs and Flaws but between the 4 and 8 Degree it is most inclin'd to Calms and thick Foggs and the Rains come not in such dangerous showrs I have not only consulted the most experienc'd of our Sea-men from whom I had information in these particulars but I find that many others both English and Forreigners have in their
Travells given us descriptions of the Tornados which would be superfluous to recite I shall only adde a relation out of Sir Thomas Roe in his East-India Voyage to confirme the precedent Discourses These Tornado-Blasts were so variable that sometimes within the space of an houre all the severall Winds of the Compasse will blow So that if there be many ships in company you shall have them sail so many severall ways and every one of them seem to goe directly before the VVind These strange Gusts came with much Thunder and Lightning and extreme Rain so noisome that it made their Cloths who stirr'd much in it to stink upon their backs and the water of these hot and unwholesome showres would presently bring forth worms and other offensive Animals The Tornados met with us when we were about 12 degrees of N. Latitude and kept us company till two Degrees Southward of the Aequinoctiall This Ecnephias not only visits the Coasts of Malaguta and Guiny producing vehement Gusts of of VVind with Rain but reaches as farre as Terra de Natal lying to the East-North-East towards St. Lawrence and at Cape Gardafui near the entrance of the Arabian Gulfe it infests those parts in May as was collected by Varenius from the Dutch Journals In the Sea towards the Kingdome of Loango and that part of the Aethiopique Ocean the Tornados are most frequent in January February and March On the shoares of Guiny when no other VVinds blow in those Climats and within 5 6 or 7 Degrees of the Aequinoctiall they raign in April May and June which is the time of their Rains and in other parts of Africk they observe other Months For they have not only Etesian VVinds but Anniversary Tempests in some Seas Yet to be fuller satisfy'd in the History of this Ecnephias I addres'd my selfe to Mr. George Cock of Greenwich a Gentleman of a generous and communicative Nature who being interested in the Royal Company is well vers'd in all occurrences of the African Trade and at my request procur'd me this following account of the Tornados on the Coast of Guiny from a person long employ'd in their service The place of the Tornados rising is E. N. E. to the N. N. E. they frequently give 2 or 3 houres notice of their coming by a thick black Cloud gatherd in the Horison with much Thunder and Lightning Sometimes the Wind comes first very forceable and then a great quantity of Rain otherwhile the Rain begins and is follow'd by a Tempestuous VVind At this season the Blacks count it good planting Corn or Roots They make the Air very cleare so that a man may see 5 times further then before I my self lying at Anchor in the River have seen the Isle of Princes at least 6 leagues up when before I could not see the Isle of Fernando do Poo During the Tornados it 's exceeding Cold insomuch that the Natives and other Inhabitants are very sensible of it for the time Their continuance is about an hour or two hours at most I endeavour'd to understand from some of our Sea-men whether the Cape Bon-Esperance was so very ominous for these kinds of Tempests according to the dreadfull descriptions of Maffeus and what notice had been taken by our Mariners of the Bulls-Eye appearing most about that Promontory which gave such discouragements to the Portugals in their first attempts upon the Indies In answer to this an Ancient East-India-Captain inform'd me he had sometimes seen that which the Portugals call'd Olho-de-Boy rising on the Peak of the Promontory and describ'd it to be A Bright-red Appearance in a Black Cloud which afterwards descending causes violent storms So that they commonly expect fowl weather and encounter great difficulties about the turning of that Point where as the Lands lye higher so they are more obnoxious to Tempests for not only the Cape Bon Esperance but severall other Hills High landsare observ'd to generate storms and in many Countrys they have Mountains from the top of which most of the Tempests thereabout are noted to take their first rise I lately made enquiries of severall ships that during the Winter months never met with any Tornados all the way from Brasile They being most violent when the Sun is near their Zenith and in the time of their Rains when the Air is moist and affords greater quantities of Flatulent vapours May we not collect from hence that this Phaenomenon also do's principally relate to the Sun which passing from one Tropique to another not only draws the Generall or Trade Winds along with it but causes the Monsoons and Tornados and though the latter differ much on the shoars of Africk from what they are in the Pacifique and Brasilean Seas yet this may be allowed to particular Accidents the diversity of Latitudes and Meridians Inequalities between the Seas and Mountains c. In the English Channel especially about the end of Summer many have been surprised with these vehement blasts of Wind with Lightning and Raine after the manner of Tornados and so in our American Dominions by the Caribbe-Islands But no Seas have been so infamous for them as those near Guiny where the Levants or Generall Brise being interrupted occasions this variablenes of the Winds or for other reasons not as yet nicely considered by our Seamen who though we must be forc'd to rely on their credit for matters of Fact yet they are able to assist us but very little in determining the Causes of things that must depend on a thousand minute observations in the places where they happen The Coasts of Monomotapa and generally the more Southerly Maritime Regions of Africk are said to abound with diverse sorts of Minerals and the Nitro-sulphureous Spirits if they escape from under the Earth or Sea must necessarily by their mutuall conflicts accension in the Air cause the most terrible Lightning and Whirlwinds Moreover the Sun then in their Zenith is more powerfull and the Spacious Aethiopique ocean must needs furnish multitudes of Exhalations that gathering insensibly at length make up the Tornado-Cloud which afterwards may create Tempests two severall ways 1. By it's resolution into Rain and stormy Gusts Or 2 ly by it's pressure when the Cloud distills not by degrees in pluvious drops but rushes down impetuously all at once driving before it a swift Torrent of Air which falls as from a precipice and threatens the oversetting of ships If it chance to be strongly resisted either by the extraordinary density of the Atmosphere or some other crosse Winds that stop the career then it runs round in changeable Puffs to all points of the compasse and though the Bulls-Eye which occasions the Ecnephias may seem exceedingly at first chiefly by reason of the vast distance from the Earth yet Ponderous bodys the higher they ascend relapse back again with the more vehement impulse and therefore some have observ'd the lesser the cloud appears at first the Tempest will last the longer The Ecnephias
by any nice enquiries to search into their Cause Only thus much I observ'd that they have an influence upon the Sea as well as the Moon both upon them and it for I found by observation of the Sun and Starrs that there was a Current tending so violently Northwards that in 24 hours it would force us as many leagues from our Easterly Course which did so confound us having neither Card nor Compasse left to Steer by which with severall other Goods were swept a way in a Breach which the Sea made into our ship that I think it was as great a difficulty for me to find out Barbados this place being nearest for our relief as Columbus who first discover'd those Countries Sir I have been as modest as I could in giving you this Relation because I know many who are unacquainted with the violence of these Tempests will be incredulous But I should be sorry that all who will not believe this Account should have the same confirmation which I had If there be any thing in it worth your notice it may engage me hereafter to recollect some more particulars In all things I shall endeavour to assure you that I am c. Were it not sufficient that a Relation much of this Nature was presented to his Majesty and that the ship after it return'd lay at Anchor a long time in the River of Thames not without signal marks of the Hurricane I might have been scrupulous enough to have desir'd the Subscriptions of severall others who could attest the truth of this Narrative I should only wish that some of those reflexions which the Ingenious Captain is pleas'd to make upon this occasion were enquir'd into by those who live upon any of the Caribbe-Islands whether the Hurricanes of the New Moon begin constantly by Night and those at the Full in the Day which would be remarkable though I never remember to have met with the like observation in any other Description However we can by no means exclude the Operations of this Influentiall Planet which has a very great Dominion over both the Winds and Tydes whether from it's Pressure or by what means soever it produces these effects Some have thought that the Moon has an Atmosphere of its own and sends out effluviums to the neighbouring World and therefore acts more Powerfully in the Perigaeum when it approaches nearest the Earth That wonderfull light which appear'd during this Hurricane might be from the Collision of the Lucid Salts with which the Sea-water is so deeply impregnated Light happily being nothing else but the Motion of some subtil matter We have seldome heard of any Hurricanes but in the Months of July August and September and the Seamen hitherto have never been apprehensive of them at other times yet the last year there happen'd one in October which was very unusual They are now become the subjects of our Gazets and scarce a year passes but we have Accounts from the American Plantations of the Damages they have sustain'd by Hurricanes Not to mention the Tragedy of my Lord Willoughby and his followers we had severall of a fresher Date no less then five or six have happen'd within these three years The last advice was from Antego the second of September the most part of the New Town of St. Johns was quite thrown down to the ground Where diverse of our Merchants Ships richly laden some from New-England and one Irish Ship that came thither for shelter perish'd in the Harbour together with many more Vessels that were cast away at Meavis and other parts of the West-Indies I also take notice of another passage where he says Hispaniola has been exempt from Hurricanes when it 's certain that at the first Descent of the Spaniards upon this Island it was most obnoxious to them of all others whereupon they afterwards took occasion to boast that since the Holy Sacrament was expos'd in their Churches they wholly ceas'd VVe may likewise observe that the Seamen took the first Presage of the Hurricane from the whifling of the VVind about the Compasse which is Ominous in those Climates where it hangs generally between the Easterly Points They vary'd no more then 14 Points in this Formidable Hurricane though it has been a vulgar errour that they shift through all Quarters of the Compasse Not only the Winds but the Currents are observ'd to change and run round in Eddys before the beginning of the Tempest This Hurricane was preceeded by a storme at North-East though it 's Universally agreed on in the Relations both of the English French and Spaniards that they commonly succeed a Calme So that you shall have the Sea for some time Placid and Even not so much as the least wrinkle to appear on the Surface of the Water It 's likewise esteem'd a sure Prognostique that the Birds led by an instinct of Nature come down before hand in Flocks from the Mountains to secure themselves in the Vallies against the injurie of the Weather I believe there might be excellent use made of the Barometer for predicting of Hurricanes and other Tempests especially at Sea since I am credibly informed that a person of Quality who lives by the Sea-side though happily there may not be so considerable alterations in the gravity of the Atmosphere far off at Land can by the Barometer almost infallibly foretell any great Tempest for severall hours before it begins I find no mention of Salt Rains in any of the English Narratives but the most Inquisitive of the French and Dutch have reckon'd it as a very Infallible Presage that the Rain which falls a little before is bitter and salt as the Sea-water which happily may argue a Collection of some Saline and Sulphureous spirits in the Regions of the Air that encountring each other may by their violent Displosion be principally concern'd in the Production of Hurricanes My Lord Bacon just hints in his Chapter De Imitamentis Ventorum that there are certain Flatulent and expansive spirits cuntained in some Minerals and then instances particularly in Niter that not only imitate but exceede the force of most VVhirlwinds But certainly Nitre alone can effect no such VVonders though by the addition of Sulphur it is soon inflamed and capable of the most vehement Agitation For the Sulphureous particles being extreamly subtil loose the Textures of the Salts and render them of the most expansive Nature wherefore in the composition of Gunpowder the Ignition is quicker and the Displosion more impetuous accordingly as the Nitrous corpuscles have greater or lesse allays of Sulphur or coale which they use in a different Proportion for Fowling-peices Canon-powder Thus from the expansion of these Raging Minerals which after their Rarefaction require an immense space and are exploded with the greatest violence we can only expect such wonderfull Effects as those of Hurricanes For beside the Subverting of Forrests and Towns They have in some of the French Plantations remov'd the Rocks from the Tops of Mountains and cast them into the Vallies as if they had been blown up with Gunpowder so that since we have no better way to interpret Nature then from the Sensible discoveries of Art we may with the greatest probability derive these Tempests from some such Nitro-Sulphureous Exhalations then which nothing in the Minerall World can be of greater force to occasion Lightning and VVhirl-Winds I shall not undertake to determine positively the Mode only I thought good to insinuate thus much that these Miraculous Emotions of the Atmosphere can hardly be supposed from the Agitation of common vapours or Air For so General a Conspiracy of the VVinds and as it were a kind of Paroxysme which so much disorders the Frame of Nature must necessarily proceed from some very extraordinary cause FINIS * De Motu Moris Ventorum Nat. Quest lib. 5. cap. 1. * Le Vent est un Movement Agitation de l' Air causè par des Exhalaisons Vapeurs Hydr. L. 15. C. 23. * aliquando Sol ipse causa est Venti fundens rigentem Aerem ex denso Coactoque explicans Sen. Nat. Q. lib. 5. cap. 5. * In turri undique clausâ foculum cum prunis ignitis in medio locavimus post parvam moram aucto calore Dilatato Aere agitabatur crux plumea hinc inde motu vario c. * Mr. Boyl's Experiments concerning the Rarefaction of the Air. * Meteor p. 67. Hom. Odys 10. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. P. Trans Vol. 2. Gass Meteor cap. 1. Nulla regio quae non habet aliquem ventum intra se cadentem circa se nascentam Lib. 5. N. Q. cap. 17. De Cartes p. 159. * De Motu Maris Vent Philos Transact Cap. 18. lib. 3. Cap. 24. lib. 3. Meteor pag. 202. Mund. Subterr Lib. 4. Lih. 1. De Gent. Sept. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Meteor lib. 2. cap. 6. Meteor cap. 2. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Meteor l. 3. c. 1. Plin. Hist Libro 2. Phil. Trans pag. 1004. Tempestatem eò Majorem esse quo minor uubes apparuit nam quò ex altiori loco descendit c. De Cartes Meteor c. 7. Detache les rochers du haut des montagnes les precipite dans les vallées c. Histoire des Iles Antiles p. 244.