360 Obfervations and RefleSihns on Storms,- 



profeflbr of natural philofophy. You will obferve it com* 

 niences at 9 o'clock in the evening of the 2 ill. I did not think 

 it neceffary to add any thing refpecling the magnetic needle. 

 " I can readih conceive ieveral good purpofes may be an- 

 fwered by this inquiry. I have therefore written to Ken- 

 nebec and to Halifax, and requefted my correfpondent at the 

 ]aft plare to extend his inquiries to Newfoundland. I hope 

 you will ex'end vours to Penfacola, and even to Jamaica. 

 The feveritv of the itorm was from north-north r eaft ; that 

 is, north*, two points to the ealt, being, you know, what 

 the ancients termed aquilo. Thefe obfervations will pro- 

 bably ftrengthen the opinion prevalent in this quarter, that 

 all our fevere north-ea(t florins begin firft, in point of time, 

 in the fouth-weft. Franklin was firft led to notice this, on 

 being prevented, by a ftormyfky, from obferving an eclipfe 

 of the moon at Philadelphia, when at Bofton, 400 miles 

 north-eaft of that city, the hemifphere was fufficiently clear 

 for that purpoie. 



" The ancients had fome ftrange notions of the local ori- 

 gin of winds. They fpeak of them as fomething different 

 from air in motion, and as if the matter of the winds were 

 a hot vapour or exhalation from caverns in the earth, where 

 Mollis kept them in chains, only when his chnrlifh majefty 

 chofe to let them loofe, like fo many bull-dogs, to fcare 

 Juno, and worry her favourites. This fable, however, is, 

 like almoft all thofc of the ancients} pregnant with wifdom. 

 Lord Bacon himfelf has laboured to teach mankind how to 

 make ^Eolus fubfervient to Juno, and fo did Franklin. The 

 tranfition from winds to rain and fnow is eafy and natural. 



ii It has always imprevTed me with fomething bordering 

 on wonder, that, during the fix and-twenty centuries where- 

 in the memory and learning of mankind have been exercifed, 

 there has not been found one fecretary of nature fufficiently 

 inftrucfed to give us a complete hiftory of the afcent of va- 

 pours from the ocean, their fufpenfion in the air, the forma- 

 tion of clouds, of fnow, and of the defcent of rain, with an 

 entire and connected chain of caufes. Des Cartes, Nieuwen-. 

 tyt, Dr. Halley, Hunter, and fome few others, have amufed 

 the world with their theories on thisfubjeft; but which of 

 them is unincumbered with difficulties? What fa&s we have 

 in this fublime part of nature, are mere fragments widely 

 fcattered. The phenomena in thefe lofty regions of the air 

 have been rather terrific objects to purblind fuperftition, than 

 inftruclivc appearances to calm philofophv. 



" The never ceafing circulation of water between the ocean 

 and the dry ground iias. been contemplated, from the earlieft 



