314 Westand North-West Winds of New-England. 
has been mowed at such a season, I have observed the 
seythes to be covered with its juice, so thick and viscid, 
and adhering so tenaciously to the scythe, as to oblige 
the mowers to employ the whetstone, not for the sake of 
giving the scythe an edge, but to remove the glutinous sub- 
stance with which it was cover 
“During the prevalence of these winds, wood burns more 
rapidly, and with a more vivid flame. ‘The flame also makes, 
frequently, a small explosion, (if I may be allowed"the term,) 
resembling strongly that of a musket, discharged at a very 
great distance. 
**All these facts, as it seems to me, are easily explicable 
on the supposition, that the north-west winds have their or- 
igin in the superior regions of the atmosphere. If this 
opinion be admitted, we cannot, I think, be at a loss for 
reasons, why they are instantaneously, and in the winter, 
severely cold; why they commence with violence, and 
terminate suddenly ; why they are remarkably pure, and 
ealthy ; why in a singular manner they facilitate combus- 
tion; why they are wholly free from terrene exhalations ; 
why, i in many instances, they condense clouds immediately 
vertical, some time before they are perceived to blow on 
the surface ; why they carry clouds, at times, towards the 
south-east, without interrupting at all the blowing ofa south- 
west wind ; and why, inthe month of March, during which 
the westerly winds almost regularly prevail, all kinds of 
wood shrink, and become dry, in a —_ degree, than in 
the most intense heat of our summer su 
Bs “* Particularly, t the peculiar degree of cold, eon paises 1B 
ery man, Scoaaied to read even newspapers, knows that 
the air, ata moderate distance from the earth, is usuall 
much colder than near the surface. This fact has b 
often proved by ascending high mountains, and by risin 
into theatmosphere in balloons; and isso evident = the ice 
and snow always visible, evenunder the equator, at great ele- 
vations, that few persons are ignorant ofit. Every degree 
d experienced in this country, must naturally be ex- 
from winds which have their origin in a superior 
ee a eee Sana eT meres 
