I 53 ] 



The limits of a Memoir, fuch as this, do not permit mc to 

 enlarge on this fubjed, and even appear to include a reproof for 

 the length of the prefent interruption. I fhall, therefore, trefpafs 

 no longer on the moments of the Academy than to fuggeft a few 

 queries, which may fland over for future confideration ; leaving it 

 to time, and the ingenuity or better direded obfervations of others, 

 to verify, to difprove, or to contemn the hints which may be 

 contained in them. 



I ft, Have not our winds become more violent, and the tem- 

 perature 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 propor- 

 tioned to thefe, as to their caufes .' 



2d, Have not fimilar changes occurred under analogous cir- 

 cumftances in North America ; 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 confequence of the deftrutlion of its timber trees .? 



3d, Has it not appeared from obfervations on the afcent of 

 balloons, and the motion of clouds, that the lower rnafs of air often 

 purfues a different courfe from the upper flratum .'' May not then 

 the limits of our llormy currents of air be often confined within 

 a few hundred yards of the furface of the earth.? and if fo, is it 

 not poflible, and even probable, that the frequent interruption 



of 



