The Weather at Florence. 



253 



Wind. — Chiefly from the south and south-west, and north, 

 but more frequently from the last quarter than from any other; 

 and though the rain has almost invariably fallen with a south 

 or south-west wind, these have not unfrequently prevailed 

 for several days without any rain accompanying them. 



Drought. — The summer of 1832 was very dry over the 

 greater part, if not the whole, of Italy. In the north, at 

 Milan, where we spent from June to August, scarcely a 

 shower fell during those three months ; and in the surround- 

 ing district, except where irrigation was practicable, the 

 Indian corn and other crops were burnt up, and produced 

 nothing. Frequent rain fell, in the month of September, in 

 this part of Italy, in the neighbourhood of the Lakes of 

 Como, Iseo, and Garda, during a tour we made in this 

 delicious region ; but on our arrival at Florence, at the latter 

 end of the month, we found complaints of the want of rain 

 almost as loud as those heard previously to our quitting 

 Milan. Many of the wells at Florence, and in the neigh- 

 bourhood, were without water; and a friend, who has resided 

 there several years, told us that he never had witnessed any 

 previous summer at all approaching this in dryness, and that, 

 on digging a hole in his garden, to ascertain the depth to 

 which the drought had extended, he found the earth, for full 

 four feet, destitute of all moisture. In some rocky districts 

 the olives and other trees had perished. In October, rain 

 fell on but three days, and in such small quantity that it would 

 have been useless to commit the seed wheat to soil which was 

 mere dust. Public prayers for rain were now offered up in 

 the cathedral for three days, viz. on the 3d, 4th, and 5th of 

 November, on which last day some showers fell, and were 

 followed by others, so as to admit of sowing the wheat, which 

 soon sprang up, and looked healthy. The rain, however, 

 which fell more or less on thirteen days of November, was 

 rarely heavy or long continued, and merely penetrated the 

 soil a few inches deep ; and as December and the greater 

 part of January were as dry as October, no rain occurring in 

 seven weeks but on six days, and then slightly ; the young 

 wheat and garden crops were in imminent danger of perish- 

 ing, and the Archbishop of Florence again ordered public 



