is as smooth and even as glass in comparison. In half an hour's time after it has reached the shore, it fans pretty briskly, and so increaseth gradually till 12 o'clock; then it is commonly strongest and lasts so till 2 or 3, a very brisk gale. About 12 at noon it also veers off to sea two or three points, or more in very fair weather. After 3 o'clock, it begins to die away again, and gradually withdraws its force till all is spent, and about 5 o'clock, sooner or later, according as the weather is, it is lulled asleep and comes no more till the next morning. "These winds are as constantly expected as the day in their proper latitudes, and seldom fail but in the wet season. On all coasts of the main, whether in the East or West Indies, on Guinea, they rise in the morning and withdraw towards. the evening; yet capes and headlands have the greatest benefit of them, where they are highest, rise earlier and blow later. "Land-breezes are as remarkable as any winds that I have yet treated of: they are quite contrary to the sea-breezes; for these blow right from the shore, but the sea-breeze right in upon the shore; and as the sea-breezes do blow in the day and rest in the night, so on the contrary, these do blow in the night and do rest in the day, and so they do alternately succeed each other. For when the sea-breezes have performed their offices of the day, by breathing on their respective coasts, they in the evening do either withdraw from the coast, or lie down to rest. Then the land-winds, whose office is to breathe in the night, moved by the order of Divine impulse, do rouse out of their private recesses and gently fan the air till the next morning; and then their task ends, and they leave the stage. "There can be no proper time set when they do begin in the evening, or when they retire in the morning, for they do not keep to an hour; but they commonly spring up between 6 and 12 in the evening, and last till 6, 8, or 10 in the morning. They both come and go away again earlier or later, according to the weather, the season of the year, or some accidental cause from the land; for in some coasts they do rise earlier, blow fresher, and remain later, than on other coasts, as I shall shew hereafter. "These winds blow off to sea, a greater or less distance according as the coast lies more or less exposed to the seawinds; for in some places we find them brisk three or four leagues off shore, in other places not so many miles, and in some places they scarce peak without the rocks, or if they do sometimes in very fair weather make a sally out a mile or two, they are not lasting, but suddenly vanish away, though yet there are every night as fresh land-winds ashore at those places, as in any other part of the world. "Indeed, these winds are an extraordinary blessing to those that use the sea in any part of the world within the tropics; for as the constant trade-winds do blow, there could be no sailing in these seas; but by the help of the sea and land breezes, ships will sail 200 or 300 leagues, as particularly from Jamaica to the Lagune of Trist, in the Bay of Campeachy, and then back again, all against the trade-wind. "The seamen that sail in sloops or other small vessels in the West Indies, do know very well when they shall meet a brisk land-wind, by the fogs that hang over the land before night; for it is a certain sign of a good land-wind to see a thick fog lie still and quiet, like smoke over the land, not stirring any way; and we look out for such signs when we are plying to windward. For if we see no fog over the land, the land-wind will be but faint and short that night. These signs are to be observed chiefly in fair weather; for in the wet season fogs do hang over the land all the day, and it may be neither land-wind nor sea-breeze stirring. If in the afternoon, also, in fair weather, we see a tornado over the land, it commonly sends us forth a fresh land-wind. "These land-winds are very cold, and though the seabreezes are always much stronger, yet these are colder by far. The sea-breezes, indeed, are very comfortable and refreshing; for the hottest time in all the day is about 9, 10, or 11 o'clock in the morning, in the interval between both breezes; for then it is commonly calm, and people pant for breath, especially if it is late before the sea-breeze comes, but afterwards the breeze allays the heat. However, in the evening again, after the sea-breeze is spent, it is very hot, till the land-wind springs up, which is sometimes not till 12 o'clock or after." 387. Mountain-breezes. M. Fournet has noticed, from observations among the Alps, a regular succession of upward breezes during the day, and downward breezes throughout the night, explicable, as he thinks, by the warming influences of the sun upon the mountain-top, before the valley has received calorific impressions sufficiently powerful to determine a descending current. As the plain warms during the day, and gradually becomes more heated than the mountain, the current is inverted, and there blows a descending nocturnal breeze. These winds are subject to peculiarities depending upon the contour of the place, and have received. local names; thus, they are called "thalwind, pontias, vesine, solore, vauderou, rebas, vent du Mont Blanc, aloup du vent.” 388. The Etesia (rog, a season) of Cæsar, are periodical winds, blowing during the dog-days upon the Egyptian coasts, thereby preventing ships from leaving Alexandria; and in the months of March and April from the south-west: the latter have been termed Ornithian winds, from their assisting the migratory species of the feathered tribes in their passage over the Mediterranean. To the Etesian winds-the Meltiem of the Turks-Egypt owes much of its fertility, for they bear the vapours of the Mediterranean across that country to the lofty mountains of Abyssinia, where they are precipitated in deluges of rain, and thus produce the flooding of the Nile.' When the sun approaches the tropic of Cancer, the winds be-. gin to blow regularly from the north; in June their direction. is N. and N. W., and in July generally northerly; in August and September, they blow due north, and towards the end of the latter month they veer to the east; in December, January, and February, when the sun has passed the equinoxial line, they are variable, and often tempestuous, generally blowing N. E., N., and N. W. About the end of February, and during March and April, they blow from the southern points of the windrose; in May they blow from the east, and in the suc ceeding month resume the order described. Bruce' mentions having witnessed, in June 1768, numbers of thin white clouds borne rapidly from the south, in a direction contrary to that of the Etesiæ, shewing the existence of opposing currents in these winds. These upper currents, which are supposed to blow from April to July, carry with them humid vapours which descend in Persia, and thereby elevate the waters of the Euphrates. Trav. in Abyssinia. CHAPTER XVI. 391. By Bruce. 394. Loss of 395. Cause of 397. Harmattan. 389. The Simoom, Samiel or Khamsin. 390. Described by Fraser. 392. By Lamartine; Denham. 393. Sandwind of the Desert. the army of Cambyses; Narrow escape of that of Alexander. death by the Simoom. 396. Pillars of Sand in the Desert. 398. The Sirocco. 399. Electrical Phenomena. 400. Luminous Precursors. 401. Solano; Libéchio; Ponente. "Like the wind, The red-hot breath of the most lone Simoom, Manfred, act iii. sc. i. 389. The Simoom, or hot poisonous wind of the desert, is recognised under the following terms,-Simun, Samiel, Sambuli, Harrour, and Khamsin. If the statements of travellers are credible, this wind is one of the most dreaded and dangerous phenomena of nature, bringing discomfort, disease or death, to him who, unhappily, may have inhaled the blast: but, doubtless, the accounts received, are in some instances much exaggerated, due discrimination not having been made in distinguishing between the effects of the wind per se, and those produced by it upon a body exhausted by fatigue and parched with thirst. Of the simoom, Rifaud' thus writes:— "Lorsque cet état de l'atmosphère n'est que faible, il cause 1 Tableau de l'Egypt et de la Nubie, p. 8. |