264 Reinarks on the Climate of' Naples and its Viciniti/. 



meter was sixty-five, and, if I remember right, rose little 

 during the day, whereas the general height at the same hour 

 for some time before might be 57° or /)8°. At three in the 

 afternoon the coolness produced by evaporation on the bulb 

 of a thermometer freely moistened and exposed was only 2^°, 

 indicating for that period of the day a great degree of moisture 

 in the atmosphere, which indeed was sufficiently evident. The 

 effect of this condition of the air on man is an indescribable 

 state of relaxation of faculties, corporeal and mental, while you 

 feel as if you could do nothing but recline on a sofa. I have 

 frequently, and on this occasion particularly, endeavoured to 

 throw off this sensation, by taking a smart walk in the open 

 air ; but out of doors it was worse than within. Strolling list- 

 lessly by the sea shore, I felt my whole body moist with per- 

 spiration, while my mouth was parched with want of moisture. 

 But what is most extraordinary, and will not easily be believed, 

 or rather conceived, by those who have not felt it, a smart 

 breeze was blowing off the water, yet I felt panting for breath, 

 like Tantalus for the delicacies that surrounded him on every 

 side. The wind was literally hoi and insalubrious, like what we 

 breathe in a crowded room. It was immediately after this, 

 finding no refreshment in the air, that I ventured to the house, 

 and made the experiment on evaporation mentioned above. 

 There were showers. during the day. 



On the evening of the 2Sd November there occurred the 

 most tremendous storm of thunder, lightning, hail, and rain, 

 I ever witnessed. The thunder was produced in a manner I be- 

 lieve quite unknown in Northern climates, not in long continu- 

 ous rolls of greater or less strength ; but after a faint introduction 

 it burst with repeated explosions like ajeu-de-joie of large ar- 

 tillery right over-head, with a most stunning noise, and an ef- 

 fect the most imposing. The lightning, or as it might be called 

 the thunder-bolt, was not less striking ; the flashes were amaz- 

 ingly vivid, and traversed the sky in bending and flexuous 

 lines to a great extent, and likewise in all directions, horizontal, 

 perpendicular, and oblique. From its quantity being so great 

 and the night so dark, its dazzling effect was excessive, and 

 the illumination of the landscape most astonishing. The even- 

 ing advanced, the peals and flashes were more reiterated, so 



