178 Prof. E. Mitchell on the Proximate 



the rainy season. " La grele ne tomb guere que dans la saison 

 pluvieuse: le tonnere ne se fait aussi entendre que dans cette sai- 

 son mais rarement ; on ne voit les eclairs de chaleur que par un 

 temps couvert et jamais par un temps chaud et serein comme il 

 arrive ordinairement en Europe." De la Cailles' Meteorological 

 Observations at the Cape of Good Hope, as quoted by Cotte. 

 Ouragan and hurricane are the same word, and stand for very 

 nearly the same idea in the two languages. 



(h.) " Le merae Academicien (Guettard) a observe que le 

 vent le plus dominant (at Warsaw), est le Sud-Ouesl qui y cause 

 souvent des oura^ans, ensuite le Sud et enfin le Nord etle Nord- 

 Ouest *r 



(i.) Russel states, that at Aleppo, in the month of September, 

 " Lightnings are very frequent in the night time, and if they 

 are seen in the western hemisphere, they portend rain, often ac- 

 companied with thunder!'"' There is little room for doubt, that 

 ill! the thunderstorms that occur there come from the same quar- 

 ter, but I have met with no passage that is quite decisive -f-. 



(Jc) Compare Joshua x, 11 — 1 Sam. vii, 10, and xii, 18 — 

 1 Kings, xviii, 41 to 46 — and Luke xii, 54, for the lime and 

 course of the thunderstorms in Palestine ; especially the latter 

 text : " When ye see a cloud rise out of the west, straitway ye 

 say there cometh a shower ; and so it is." In the other cases there 

 was a particular interposition of the Deity, but in such a way 

 doubtless as to produce effects according to the ordinary course of 

 nature. Hence, after there had been •' a sound of abundance of 

 rain" or thunder, Elijah went to the top of Carrael, and sent his 

 servant to look westxoard over the Great Sea: there arose at first 

 " a little cloud out of the sea like a man's hand," but the heaven 

 was soon " black with clouds and wind, and there was a great 

 rain." It is stated particularly that these occurrences were some 

 time after mid-day. Verse 29- 



(Z) " In the beginning of April, and sometimes earlier, par- 

 ticularly in the south-eastern quarter of Bengal, there are fre- 

 quent storms of thunder, lightning, wind, and rain, from the 

 north-west quarter, which happen more frequently towards the 



• Cotte, vol. i. p. 3C5. 



•f See Calmet's Dictionary, vol. iii. p. 497- 



