pen soon after the autumnal equinox. Without dweiling much on the advantages of these high winds, which are known to strip the trees of their leaves, and are said to contribute greatly, by the agitation of them, to the fall of the sap, I shall beg leave to observe, that the little summer of St. Martin, which follows these gales, and is probably the effect of them, continues from the beginning to the 22d of November. This interval of clear weather is particularly useful to the farmer and the gardener; to the former in ploughing and sowing winter and summer fallows, to the latter in pruning and dressing his trees after the fall of the leaf, and when the return of the sap is completed. But turnpike roads being now made throughout the country, and safe, expeditious, and cheap conveyances being opened, by means of the canals, from the interior of the country to the sea, and labourers of every description resorting in great numbers to the hills, where they are employed to work the mines of iron, lime, and coal, the produce of the country will in future be consumed on the spot, and necessarily increase the quantity of manure. In the course of a few years, then, the valleys at least will come into a high state of cultivation, and both the hay and corn harvests in Glamorganshire will be as early and productive as those of any other county of Great-Britain. The experienced farmer would not thank me for any remarks."As to the winter, it is well known on the great advantages to be de- that little is to be done in the rived from having fodder of a su❤ country at this time, except the perior quality for his horses, cattle, carrying of manure; but it is imand sheep. portant both to the farmer and gardener to remember, that the hard weather seldom begins before Christmas, and in very severe winters a hard frost is generally preceded or accompanied, in the early part of it, by a heavy fall of snow. Thus secured, the wheat and herbage of every kind is safe from external cold; for snow being a non-conductor of heat, the internal warmth of the earth, which at all seasons is equal at least to 48 degrees of Fahrenheit's thermome ter, rises, and is retained near the surface; and when the thaw takes place, vegetation, having been preserved under this excellent covering of the sheet of snow, is found to be in a very advanced and improved state. "As the solsticial rains are always accompanied with westerly and south-westerly winds, the mariner will readily comprehend, that this season is unfavourable for ships outward bound to the West Indies and America, and consequently the reverse for those which are homeward bound from those countries. "It is usual for English travellers to fix the middle of July for their summer excursions, but they must constantly expect to be interrupted by heavy showers of rain. To one class of them however this circumstance may be considered as an advantage: it has lately been the fashion to visit Wales, and, amidst its wild romantic scenery, the waterfalls are in the height of their beauty at this season. "The next meteorological general fact worthy of observation is, that frequent violent gales of wind hap "The mariner at this inclement season will seldom go to sea if he can avoid it; but voyages to the West Indies may be undertaken in the the winter, provided there is a good outset from the channel by the help of easterly or north-easterly winds. As the spring approaches, the easterly winds commence: the March winds and April showers, says the honest countryman, bring forth May flowers; and it is supposed, that the motion of the trees at the vernal equinox contributes to raise the sap and develop nature, which seems to have been in a state of torpor or necessary repose during the winter. The prudent farmer avails himself of these winds also to sow his oats, barley, pease, beans, potatoes, &c. The drying quality of these winds, on which I have already pretty fully expatiated, takes from the earth what would otherwise be a superabundant degree of moisture on the surface of it. "At this season, likewise, the British mariner becomes particularly active. He may undertake his voyages to all countries situated to the southward of these islands; and if bound to the East Indies in particular, he may perform the voyage almost to a certainty in less than four months. The N. E. winds being favourable for ships outward bound, they are of course adverse to those that are homeward bound; therefore it would be prudent to postpone, if possible, entrance into the channel to the end of May, or the beginning of June. "In short, the spring is the most favourable season for outwardbound ships, and the summer for those returning home. In the autumn the winds generally incline to the W. but rather towards the N. than the S.; and in winter they are often from the N. E. but the heavier gales of wind almost always come from the N. W. "After having pointed out to the farmer and gardener, the mariner and the traveller, the winds which prevail at different seasons of the year, and which, in examining several meteorological registers kept in Great-Britain for upwards of fifty years, I have found to be almost as periodical as those in the tropics, I shall proceed to a further application of this hypothesis to domestic purposes. "It appears that in these islands the W. and S. W. winds prevail threefourths of the year, and the E. and N. E. only one-fourth. In all parts of Great-Britain the S. W. is es teemed the most rainy point of the compass. "In building houses, granaries, or storehouses of any kind, therefore, in all parts of Great-Britain and Ireland, great care should be taken not to place buildings to the E. or N. E. of any lake or standing pool of water, but particularly of marshes or fens; and where a choice is permitted, it would perhaps be prudent to erect our habitations tothe W. and S. W. of every river and canal; for if situated to the eastward of them, according to this hypothesis, the wind will blow upon the buildings three-fourths of the year, bringing with it the additional moisture of the river or canal, and consequently will render it damp and unwholesome; whereas if placed westward of these sources. of moisture, the air from the eastward, which is rather too dry, in passing over large bodies of water, will absorb a certain quantity of the moisture in solution in the atmosphere, and the dampness of it of course will be by these means in some degree diminished: but at a!! events, as the wind blows from the eastward three months of the year only, a house thus situated will be less damp than one placed to the westward, exactly in proportion to the the difference of time each different wind blows, that is, as three to nine; and for this reason every person should recoilect that the W. and S. W. sides of a house are always the most damp. "It seems needless to expatiate on the necessity of applying these observations in particular to situations near marshes or fens. The fatal consequences of the exhalations from these places are very well known; and therefore I shall content myself with having pointed out to those, who are unavoidably obliged to live near them, the most effectual means of partly avoiding their effects. If any persons can for a moment entertain a doubt of their baneful influence, I must beg leave to refer them to the first book of the classical and elegant poem on health by the learned and ingenious Dr. Armstrong, whose salutary advice I shall not attempt to disguise in the tame language of prose; nor would I wish, by a partial quotation, to deprive the reader of the pleasure of gratifying himself by a general reference to the original. "Although our atmosphere in particular places is impregnated with noxious vapours, fortunately for the inhabitants of these islands they are not subject to the baneful influence of poisonous winds; nor can they scarcely consider themselves exposed to the ravages of hurricanes. The tempests, which sometimes are known in our temperate climate, can scarcely be deemed more than storms, especially when compared with those in the tropic. But a brief recapitula tion of the fundamental principles of our theory will best distinguish the names and characters of every kind of wind. "All winds are supposed to be produced by the joint effects of rarefaction and condensation. These two principles acting near the middle of the South Atlantic, the Pacific, or any other wide expanse of ocean unbroken by land, will produce two currents of air, one from the E. following the course of the sun, and another nearly N. or S. from the frozen regions near the pole. These two currents of air moving through nearly an equal space, and nearly with equal velocity, over a surface of equal temperature, at length unite, and form a N. E. and S. E. perennial, commonly called a trade wind. "Where a considerable body of land intervenes, particularly in the tropics, new points of rarefaction and condensation take place, sufficiently powerful to counteract the former more remote, and therefore more feeble causes; and thus the monsoon, or any other periodical wind, will be formed. "But in high latitudes, near extesnive tracts of both sea and land, where the points of rarefaction and condensation are more irregular but moderate, and the changes of temperature much more frequent, the winds in those parts of the globe will necessarily become more variable, and also less violent. "But perhaps it will be asked, by what means opposite currents of air are observed in the same place? or, in common lauguage, while the wind blows one way, why the clouds apparently move another? The term wind, mentioned as something distinct from the current of air in this question, is, I believe, the cause of all the doubts and perplexities, and very often in this inquiry misleads even experienced philosophers themselves. For my own part, I feel little doubt that these opposite cur rents rents of air are imputable to electrical agency, as they almost always precede thunder-storms; for when a considerable portion of the atmosphere in the upper regions is rarefied by means either of electrical or common fire, the surrounding bodies of air will suddenly rush towards the point of rarefaction to fill up the vacuum. But when all the phenomena of electricity, and the various causes of heat, are perfectly known, it will, I doubt not, he as easy to calculate and predict the course and strength of winds, as it now is to foretel the flux and reflux of the tides, and the regular return of eclipses." General METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS made in ENGLAND. [From the Same.] HOSE who are furnished with proper instruments, and who carefully observe the information they afford, will not often be mistaken in their judgment of the changes of the weather. The barometer, the thermometer, the hygrometer, and the electrometer, will generally give us timely notice of any material change in the state of the atmosphere. But before we consider the best, or at least the usual modes of employing these instruments, we will beg leave to mention some common remarks of the peasantry, whose professions requiring them to live much in the open air, their opinions merit very great attention, being the result of local observation, continued from father to son, and verified from the experience of many ages. Amongst the first of these is one, now established into a proverb, that a rainbow in the morning is the shepherd's warning, but the rainbow at night is the shepherd's delight. "In a country with the sea or ocean to the westward, and the wind from the same quarter, this opinion is likely to be true; for at least nine-tenths of the rain in a country so situated would come from that side. If, therefore, the clouds to the westward in the morning are saturated with moisture, which they must be to produce a rainbow, as these clouds proceed from the west towards the east, they probably will produce rain; whereas, on the contrary, when the sun sets perfectly clear, and the clouds to the castward are moist, it is a proof that the wet clouds are past, with a westerly wind, and the shepherd therefore may reasonably expect fine weather on the following day. "When it rains with an east wind, it probably will rain for twenty-four hours. This is another observation, which seems to me applicable to countries situated as above mentioned, with land to the eastward; for in general the weather is dry in these countries with an east wind, but when the cohesion of the air and water is broken, the rain will not be violent, but of long dura tion. "The weather generally clears at noon; but when it rains at midday, it seldom clears up again till sun-set. The air, when dry and warm, continues to absorb and retain the moisture continually evaporated evaporated from the earth; as, therefore, the sun advances towards the meridian, and for an hour or two afterwards, he dries and warms the air, and consequently the rain is likely to cease at that time. But if there should be so much water in solution in the atmosphere, that the heat of the sun is not sufficient to produce these effects, in that case the rain will probably continue some hours longer. "Violent winds generally abate towards sun-set. "If we admit that wind is only a current of air put in motion by the rarefaction of the atmosphere in some particular place, and that this current of air is moving towards the point of rarefaction to restore the equilibrium, we must suppose, that as the sun declines the rarefaction will diminish, and consequently the velocity of the wind decrease. But this observation, in my opinion, rather applies to the temperate than to the torrid zone; for in whirlwinds and hurricanes the contrary may very often occur. When the wind follows the course of the sun, it is generally attended with fair weather. This frequent and regular change of tvind, which is never more than a moderate breeze, proves that there is no point of considerable rarefaction near; and, therefore, the current of air follows immediately the sun's course: it always happens in summer, but very seldom when the sun's meridian altitude is less than forty degrees. "The changes which take place in the atmosphere are principally marked by the rising and falling of the barometer, which apparently is caused by heat and cold, the hands with which nature performs her meteorological operations: by the former the atmosphere is rarefied, and consequently becomes light; by the latter it is condensed, and consequently becomes heavy. Hence probably the old remark, that a storm generally follows a calm; for during a calm the air is rarefied and expanded, and the cold air will rush forward in a strong current to restore the equilibrium, and necessarily produce what is generally called a gale of wind, the violence of which also will of course be in proportion to the degree of the preceding rarefaction. "For these reasons, the barometer falls suddenly whilst the air is expanded before a gale of wind, and rises again gradually as the condensed air returns; and the gale in like manner by degrees subsides.. "It must however be observed, that an extraordinary fall of the mercury will sometimes take place in summer, previous to heavy showers of rain, particularly if attended with thunder and lightning; but in spring, autumn, and winter, the sudden extraordinary descent of the barometer indicates principally violent wind. "Upon these principles likewise, we may account for the rise and fall of the barometer in the different zones. In the torrid zone, parti cularly at St. Helena and the islands of the Pacific Ocean, it seldom varies more than three-tenths; at Madras about five-tenths; in the south of Europe not more than one-inch and two-tenths; in England it varies two inches and a half, and in Petersburg three inches four-tenths. In the two first the temperature of the atmosphere is not subject to much variation, and never to any great degree of con densation, |