prevalent Disorders, tyc, with Volcanic Emanations. $ 



of the earthquakes in Calabria, on March 28. 1783. Count 

 Hippolito states that the sky was covered with clouds, and 

 westerly gales blew very fresh. These were stilled one minute 

 before the horrid crash ; but, in a moment, they blew again, 

 and were still. Different winds blew all night ; but they all 

 came from between south and west. These earthquakes were 

 preceded by great and extraordinary frosts in 1782; by an 

 insiiffcrable drought and heat in the spring; and by copious and 

 continued rains, which began in autumn and continued to the 

 end of January. Rains came without thunder and lightning. 

 Where winds used to blow, at that time there were none : 

 but, at the beginning of the earthquake, all seemed let loose 

 together, accompanied by hail and rain. The sea was agitated 

 before the earth, without any visible cause. Etna erupted 

 during the first shock ; Stromboli during the last. The shocks 

 were all from the south-west. (P. T., App. to vol. lxxiii.) 



The most apt illustration of a hurricane which I have met 

 with is that given by Aristotle, in the passage where he speaks 

 of the destruction of Helice by the earthquakes of the year 

 b. c. 372 or 373. (See M. N. H., vii. 298. note f.) He says 

 that the north wind and the south wind both blew at the same 

 time, while the shocks were destroying the city. (Meteor., ii. 8.) 



The above examples furnish some illustration of one class 

 of winds, and appear to disprove the assertion of Sir J. Her- 

 schel, that " by the heat of the sun are produced all winds." 

 (Astronomy, Lardner f s Cyclopaedia, p. 211. §336.)* The 

 westerly gales, probably, are to be referred to the action of 

 the sun " idtimately : but their intensity and frequent hur- 

 ricane character, in 1833, point to some great modifying 

 cause. Certain of those gales can, I think, be traced to a 

 connection with volcanic influence; as those of Aug. 30. and 

 31., considered above. (VII. 303.) But, before entering upon 

 them minutely, it may be as well to offer 



Some Remains respecting violent Winds in general, and the 

 Ideas which occur of the Propelling Causes of our prevalent 



* Mr Lyell (Princip. Geol. y ii. 232.) says : — " Many of the storms 

 termed hurricanes have evidently been connected with submarine earth- 

 quakes ; as is shown by the atmospheric phenomena attendant on them, 

 and by the sounds heard in the ground, and the odours emitted." He 

 quotes hereon the smell of the sea, in Jamaica, in 1780. 



Mr. Poulett Scrope {Considerations on Volcanoes, p. 61.) mentions three 

 phenomena produced frequently by volcanic agency: — 1. Hurricanes; 

 2. Rain in torrents; 3. Electrical phenomena. He mentions, also (p. 59.), 

 that " the inhabitants of Stromboli positively make use of the volcano as 

 a weather-glass : " since its phenomena increase " in turbulence as the 

 weather thickens;" and return "to a state of comparative tranquillity 

 with the serenity of the sky." (See M. N. H , vii. 296. note f.) 



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