78 NATURAL AND CIVIL 



with it. There has also been an apparent alter.- 

 ution in t]ic direction of the ^\inds. The preva- 

 Icnc}' and extent of the westerly winds, seem to 

 be abating : Or rather tiie easterly winds are 

 certainly increasing' in their frequency and ex- 

 tent. These winds are now very frequent in 

 the spring, in all that part of the country, which 

 lies v/ithin sixty or seventy miles of the sea 

 coast. Haifa century ago, the easterly winds 

 seldom reached farther than thirty or forty miles 

 irom the sea shore. They have now advanced 

 as far as the mountains, which are generally 

 eighty or an hundred miles from the ocean. As 

 the country becomes settled and cleai'cd, they 

 are found to advance more and more, into the 

 internal parts of the country. It can hardly be 

 doubted, but that this event is owing to the in- 

 creasing^ cultivation of the countrv. As the 

 woods are cut down, the earth and atmosphere 

 become more heated than the ocean : The di- 

 rection of the winds will of course be from the 

 sea, tO"\vards the lar^d. As the country becomes 

 more settled and cleared, it m probable these 

 winds will continue to advance further towards 

 the west. 



The same causes which produce a change 

 in the heat of the earth, in its wetness, in the 

 snow and vvinds, will produce as great a change 

 in the Aveathcr and seasons. \V'hile the state of 

 a country remains unaltered, the G:cneral course 

 and appearance of nature vv ill be the same, from 

 one age to another. Summer and uintcr, spring 

 and fall, the productions of the earth, the state 

 of the air and weather, will be subject to but 

 little annual alteration or change. But when 



