172 Remarks on the Climate, Situation, and [Sept. 



sun gets up towards the meridian. The tempez - ature of the 

 lower stratum of air being increased, and consequently rarihed, 

 it is evident that the upper region of the atmosphere above us 

 would also receive an increase of temperature, by the constant 

 succession or supply of warmer air from the region below, which 

 again (as it appeared) received its supply of cool air from the 

 most open quarter, viz. from the sea. This sea breeze, as I 

 have stated above, generally came on about nine or ten o'clock 

 in the morning, by which time the sun was sufficiently elevated 

 that its rays could bear upon the whole plain and sides of the 

 hills with effect; the breeze generally increased till about two 

 o'clock ; and about sun-set subsided. This circulation, or 

 ascending current of the warmer air, seemed to have at times 

 considerable effect upon the clouds which happened to pass in 

 our zenith, and which were not too elevated to be out of its 

 influence. I have observed several instances of the atmosphere 

 in the morning being quite overcast with clouds, and apparently 

 <to an English eye) threatening rain, but which, about noon, 

 became quite fine and clear ; and in the afternoon the clouds, to 

 my surprise, almost, and even wholly, to disappear (and this was 

 not an uncommon occurrence). It was rare indeed during my 

 stay there, that the sun was not to be seen and felt also in the 

 middle of the day. In one instance a north westerly current 

 brought up a quantity of clouds in detached Cumuli, which, when 

 they had reached our zenith, were met by the sea breeze from 

 S.E. which carried them all back, and in a short time disap- 

 peared. At other times they advanced to the summits of the 

 neighbouring mountains, where they rested for the greater part 

 of the day, assuming the Cirrostratus {own. Thunder storms, I 

 was informed, occurred very frequently in the summer, two or 

 three times in the course of a week in the neighbourhood of the 

 mountains, but that they seldom visited Nice (except at times 

 during the spring). I had an opportunity of remarking this on 

 the approach of a storm, one morning in the beginning of the 

 summer.* 



In this fine Italian sky, if so it may be called, the clouds, as 

 a variety, often added much to the picturesque appearance of the 

 landscape ; it is not often, perhaps, that scenes are met with so 

 beautiful and so highly picturesque of the kind as the north-east 



view of the town and rock of Nice, with the distant shores of 



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* Extract from daily observations respecting this on June 2: — " Fine day: 

 observed some finely illuminated Cumuli, with dark Cirri, traversing their sides, 

 rising up above the mountains to the north: as they rose (o a certain elevation, their 

 summits gave way, and spread, as if acted upon by a different stale of electricity, 

 into a Cirri form ; at length, about noon, several collected in the north into a 

 dark, heavy mass of thunder clouds, discharging rain or hail over the mountains; 

 the mass gradually approached our zenith, although the wind with us was blow- 

 ing in a direction contrary to it; but before it reached our zenith, it seemed to have 

 fallen into a different atmospheric medium, and I observed it soon began to fold 

 itself backward, and in an hour or two the whole seemed to be gone, or merely to 

 leave behind some light Cirri.'" 



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