248 Mr Black on the Climate 



hygrometrical capacity. At Patrasso and Lapanto, the varia- 

 tions in the atmospherical humidity are very trifling, from the 

 winds, in most directions, sweeping over the land, which in- 

 fluences the proximate effect of their previous condition. Many 

 other examples might illustrate the effect that surfaces, over 

 which the winds blow, have on the humidity of the atmosphere. 

 Thus I have found, in coasting round the Morea in summer, 

 when the wind was from a great extent of sea, that the air was 

 always damp. Off" Navarino, it was extremely so, when it blew 

 from any other point but over the Morea. In the course of a 

 voyage, the same winds will be felt changing their hygrometri- 

 cal condition with the different localities over which they travel. 

 Off* Navarino, a north-west wind will be moist, while, under the 

 lee of Zante, it will be found dry. In running from Cape An- 

 gelo to the d''Oro Passage, a northerly wind has been found dry, 

 with all the arid and bare Cyclades to windward ; while, after 

 getting through the Passage, the same wind has become exces- 

 sively damp, and continued so until the Gulf of Smyrna has 

 been made, when it again became dry, — it blowing over Mi- 

 tylene, after having previously traversed an unknown extent of 

 terra firma. 



Temperature depends not so much on surrounding localities, 

 as on the season ; while humidity is more affected by the surface 

 over which the wind blows than by the season. Even in the 

 latter part of summer, when the land becomes a great reverbe- 

 rator of heat, arising, in a considerable degree, from the decay of 

 its verdant vegetation, the temperature of the air suff*ers no great 

 change from a change of wind ; yet its aqueous condition will be 

 much affected. In calculating, then, on the dryness or moisture 

 of the air, the point of the compass from which the wind blows 

 is not so much to be considered, as the surface, land or sea, over 

 which it travels, and the extent of that surface, with the inter- 

 vening locality, if any exist. At Malta, I have observed the 

 hygrometer stand the highest, with the wind from the north ; 

 and the lowest, with a wind varying from S. to E. in the months 

 of July and August. From the Meteorological Table, it will 

 be observed that the proportion of fair weather is much greater 

 than it is in Britain ; and that the rainy and showery days 

 (which were registered rainy ^ when rain fell even for a few 

 hours, and showery^ if one shower happened during the 24), do 



