3^2 - Ol'firvat'etit to prove « Change ef Qimate in Ireland- 



Heat and cold and rains are, indeed, principals in the economy of fcafons ; but winds, 

 clouds, vapours, and other circumftances rarely reglftered, often unperccived, are to be 

 deemed at lead ancillary in the extenfive fyftem •, and may give plaufibility to popular fen- 

 fations and opinions, even without the aid of meteorological teftimony. 



It is the purpofe of this paper to offer to the Academy fome obfervations relating to this 

 interefting fubjeft ; and to mark a few prominent events in the phenomena of our climate, 

 which may add credibility to general report. 



Of the Winds, and their EffeBs. 



THE winds which mod ufuaily prevail in our latitudes blow from the weftward, for rea- 

 fons unnecefliiry to be detailed here. Thefe winds are commonly mild in their tempera- 

 ture, and molft in their nature. They are from thefe properties extremely friendly to ani- 

 mal and vegetable life ; and to them the great population of Ireland, and the uncommon 

 fertility of its foil, may among natural caufes be afcribed. 



Rut from whatever circumftances it has arifen, thefe winds have of late years fwept with 

 unrcMnmon violence over the furface of our ifland ; fruflrating the ufual efFe6ls of their ge- 

 nial properties by the overbearing fury of their courfe ; and, like Saturn, fometimes devouring 

 the offspring to which themfelves had given birth. 



Why tliefe wefterly winds have ceafed to bear the charafter of zephyrs may admit of 

 much curious and interefting inveftigation : at prefent I ftiall be fatisfied with endeavour- 

 ing to eftablifh the fadl itfelf, by fuggefting to the Academy fome circumftances that feem 

 to determine the matter with a very great degree of probability. 



The effeds of thefe winds are marked in vifible chara£lers over the whole furface of the 

 kingdom ; but they are peculiarly diftinguiftiable in the northern province of Ulfter ; and 

 chiefly in the extreme countries of that province, where a northerly latitude, joined to an ex- 

 pofed fituation on the coafts of the ocean, forms an apt ftation.for obfervations, and exhibits 

 as it were on a magnified fcale the degrees of the phenomena themfelves. 



Three natural regifters of- thefe effeds have come within my obfervation -, the trees of 

 the country, the fands of the fea-coaft, and the tides of the ocean : of each of thefe I ihall 

 ■make mention in its order. 



Of the Trees. 



IT is a fa£l extremely well eftabliftied, that the pine-tree, peculiarly that fpecies vulgarly 

 denominated the Scotch fir, formerly grew on many of the mountains of this kingdom, and 

 on parts of the northern and weftern coafts, exceedingly bare and open to ftorms. Vaft 

 roots and noble trunks of this fpecies 6f pine have been feen and examined by me with at- 

 tention, in fituations where human induftry cannot now rear a twig of the hardieft tree. • 

 Qn the higheft lands of the general furface of th& kingdom, in the county of Weftmeath, 

 amid the mountains of the, county of Antrim, .and on theriaked coafts of Enifliowcn and 

 Roffes, in the county of Donegal, pine-trees have formerly arrived at an age of an hundred 

 and twenty years, have grown to. the fi^ of .a yard in diameter, and furpaffed fifty feet in 

 height. :'.^'r.-y. kIi-Hc vr-rrr.-;:;! tvri: i- 1^-: r ei') ::. 



There is great reafon to think that two centuries have hardly elapfed fince many of thefe 



trees grew in thofe fituations ; and prob«J)le rsaJ[onSi might be adduced to limit the great pe- 



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