prevalent Disorder s^ Src, with Volcanic Emanations, 617 



frigate, on the contrary, ran from Santander to Plymouth in 

 50 hours, four days before. 



Three solutions have been given of the cause of these 

 westerly winds, which, in the south of England have, assumed 

 a somewhat constant character. Some say we are receding 

 from the sun ; others, that the clearing of the wilds of Canada 

 has so changed the cUmate, that the n.w. winds will prevail 

 over to England, causing no winter in the southern counties, 

 and producing cold at New Orleans ; causing a British westerly 

 trade wind, and driving the real trades to the south of the 

 Mexican Gulf; others, again, attempt (as the Qiiarterly Re- 

 view, xviii. 447.) to account for them by the melting of the 

 ice in the Atlantic. Let us examine these theories in order. 

 1. As for the recession of the earth from the sun, of which 

 certain German philosophers have spoken, we may safely 

 refer our readers to the calculations of astronomers themselves, 

 to show how unfounded are any fears connected with a known, 

 but in this respect unimportant, fact in science.* 2. As to 

 the clearing of the woods in Canada producing a change in 

 the climate of England, observation tends to prove that such 

 a supposition is perfectly erroneous. 



Dr. Kelly has shown, in the Transactions of the Literary 

 and Historical Society of Quebec (iii. part i. 46.), from a com- 

 parison of recent observations, and an examination of ancient 

 documents, that the climate of Canada has not altered during 

 the last two hundred years, and that, consequently, no change 

 can have been wrought in Europe, within the last few years, 

 on that account. The winds which prevail in that colony 

 are, he sa3^s, chiefly from the w. and s.w. ; and Mr. C. R. 

 Redfield (Silliman's ^wz^r. Jbwr., xxv. 114.) considers these 

 winds as part of the circuit of the trades to the n.e. from the 

 Mexican mountains, drifting through the valley of the St. 

 Lawrence f, and, when not high, causing the heat at Montreal 

 sometimes to equal 93°. That the climate of Europe, within 

 the course of centuries, has changed, there is no doubt ; the 

 vineyard countries of England, France J, and Germany have 

 most assuredly decreased in temperature ; and, to account for 

 a recent partial amelioration, certain writers have attributed 

 it to the clearing of woods nearly 4000 miles from the British 



* The earth's annual recession is about a thousandth part of its distance 

 from the sun. To this the German writers attribute our wet summers and 

 decreasing vegetation ! 



f Sir John Herschel accounts for the westerly winds of the Atlantic, 

 by a compound resultant motion of the earth and the air. (Lardner*s 

 Cyclopcediay Astronomy ^ p. 132.) 



% In 1552-3 the Huguenots drank Muscat wine made at Macon : 

 it is not now made there. {Arago.) Other examples are given in the 

 Quarterly Review, xviii. 207, 



