Meteorological Ohfer-vations made at Vadiia. 41^ 



yellow and red, being the ftrongeft, were thofe which pierced 

 it ofteneft, the fim appeared like a ball on fire, or of a blood 

 colour J which gave occafion to many vrhimfical people, 

 whofe imaginations were heated, to fee there, as in the 

 clouds, the figures of men and animals. Very often the 

 fun, in the higher part of the atmofphere, feemed pale and 

 white by the abfence of feveral coloured rays ; and he ap- 

 peared red when he was lower, becaufe his rays then palTed 

 through a greater portion of the atmofphere. 



That it may not be imagined that this phenomerion \% 

 new in the world, I fliall here give a fliort account of thofe 

 obferved formerly, analogous to it. But it will firft be proper 

 to fay a few words refpe6ling the caufe of this extraordinary 

 fog, which I am inclined to think came from Sicily and 

 Calabria, where there were violent earthquakes. We know, 

 by the accounts given, that the heavens in thofe countries 

 appeared cloudy after the great fliocks, which may be rea- 

 dily believed W'hen we confider the immenfe exhalations that 

 mud have been difperfed throughout the atmofphere. In 

 the month of June the fouth-eaft winds prevailed through- 

 out all our country. Thefe winds at Venice are called Fo- 

 r'laniy becaufe they firft take place on this fide of the gulph , 

 It is very probable that thefe winds, traverfing that part of 

 the atmofphere, may have carried with them a large mafs o* 

 exhalations, which, being flopped by the chain of the Alps, 

 difperfed themfelves in Lombardy, and occupied even the 

 Alps, wliich people, with aftoninnnent, beheld red, or o.. 

 different colours, according to the pofition of the fun and o^ 

 the obferver. It docs not appear that thefe exhalations arofe 

 from our territory, which was not feen to fmoke, as is ge- 

 nerally the cafe in the time of a fog; but it proceeded down- 

 wards, as if it had fallen from the atmofphere. It v/as not 

 feen to touch the earth, except when, by an optical illufion, 

 the nebulous ftratum, by being lengthened, appeared united 

 with the fenfible horizon. It occafioned no hurt, therefore, to 

 the fruits of tlic earth 3 it is faid only that it blallcd the olives 

 H e 3 and 



