Dr Heineken on the Sirocco Wi7ids at FunchaL 



The hygrometer is DaniePs, and used at an open window 

 facing the south. 



The minimum temperature of the four-and-twenty hours 

 immediately preceding the sirocco is the minimum obtained in 

 the general observations for temperature. 



The terms are of course (as I am not aware of any standard) 

 arbitrary and relative. By a " true Sirocco^'' I mean a dry, 

 hot, parching wind, coming in puffs from the south east, and 

 with a perfectly cloudless sky, of a pale, warm, peculiar blue. 

 By '^ partial,'''' either a true sirocco mixed with, or diluted by, 

 (if I may be allowed such expressions) the common atmo- 

 sphere—or unmixed, but confined in extent, and in both in- 

 stances retaining the peculiarities of the true sirocco, but in a 

 milder form. By an " imperficf sirocco I would imply simply 

 a hot wind — generally blowing from the east — not necessarily 

 dry — or in piffs, or accompanied by a peculiar sTcy. " Thick^'' 

 ^^hazy^'' and " cloudy^'' as applied to our hot winds, I know 

 not how to explain satisfactorily to a stranger to the climate. 

 There are no atmospheric appearances in a northern climate 

 to which, as far as I remember, I can compare them. I fear 

 almost, that, like another peculiarity of climate, (the duties of 

 a Cavalier servente) I must, in the words of the poet, leave 

 my readers to " suppose them.**' The first gives the idea of 

 simple density in the air without any apparent cause, — the se- 

 cond shows something approaching to a mist as a cause, — and 

 a cloudy sirocco is a grey overshadowing of the sky, rather 



