Zuppofed Coufes of Chttngt bf Climaie in Ireland. 4yj' 



Conclusion. 



IN this Memoir I have endeavoured to prove, from natural and almoft incontrovertible 

 rcgifters of .the phenomena of later years, that the winds, and particularly the weftera 

 ftorms, have fwcpt with Increafed violence over Ireland. 



From this faft I have deduced a neceflary change in its climate ; a more general equa- 

 feility of temperature through the year ; fummers lefs warm, and winters more mild and 

 open : and ladly, I have endeavoured to fupport this conclufion by general obfervation, 

 and the enumeration of particular inftances where the defe£t of fummer heat, and winter 

 ice, feem to be the moll (trongly marked. 



One queflion ftill remains curious in its principle, and interefting in its folution — Why 

 have thefe weftern winds blown with unufual and increafed violence ? 



The limits of a Memoir fuch as this do not permit me to enlarge on this fubjeft, and even 

 «ppcar to include a reproof for the length of the prefent interruption. I fhall therefore tref- 

 pafs no longer on the moments of the Academy than to fugged a few queries, which maf 

 ftand over for future confideratlon ; leaving it to time, and the ingenuity or better directed 

 obfervations of others, to verify, to difprove, or to condemn, the hints which may be con- 

 lained in them. 



ift. Have not our winds become more violent, and the temperature of our feafons more 

 equable, fince the forefts of Ireland were cleared, and the country cultivated ? And have 

 not thefe winds, and that equability of temperature, been nearly proportioned to thcfc as t* 

 their caufes ? 



2d. Have not fimilar changes occurred under analogous circumftances in North America y 

 even in Canada, that country of extremes in heat and cold ? And did not the ifland of 

 Bermudas, though fituated fo much to the fouthward of us, become barren of fruit in con- 

 fequcnce of the deftru£lion of its timber-trees ? 



3d. Has it not appeared from obfervations on the afcent of balloons, and the motion of 

 clouds, that the lower mafs of air often purfues a different courfe from the upper ftratum • 

 May not then the limits of our ftormy currents of air be often confined within a few hun- 

 dred yards of the furface of the earth ? And if fo, is it not poffible, and even probable, 

 that the frequent interruption of forelts and groves, and hedge-row trees, might have for- 

 merly very much retarded, and finally checked, the progrefs of a tempeft ? 



4th. Have not all the countries of Europe, Afia, and America, within the parallel of 

 Ireland, been very much denuded of their forefts within the prefent century .' And has 

 not the increafed velocity of the wefterly winds been proportioned to this deftruftion oi 

 the forefts and trees, as to their natural caufes ? 



5th. Is it not probable, fince the prevalent winds of our parallel have a wefterly ten- 

 dency, that circumftances which have removed impediments to their career round the en- 

 tire globe would give increafed velocity to their courfe ? 



6th. Should not Ireland, launched as it is into the Atlantic beyond the other coafts of 

 Europe, and denuded as it has been of forefts and hedge-row trees, be moft fenfibly af- 

 fected by increafing tcmpefts from the weft, and the firft to experience their influence 

 cm its climate ? 



Whether thefe queries have any foundation in nature, or are merely to be efteemed the 



refult of an unreftrained imagination ; whether fo diminutive an animal as man, fo tem- 



VoL. 11.— Jan- 1799- 2^ P°"*y 



