346 X^^^teotologg* 



the hill tops in proportion to that in the valleys during the 

 winter as compared with the summer months. 



The Winds in this part of our island are chiefly from the 

 west and south-west, and these are loaded with moisture 

 evaporated from the Irish Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. 

 When their contents reach the colder air of the mountain- 

 ous districts, they are condensed and are deposited on the 

 sides of the eminences which arrest their progress, and thus 

 occasion the extraordinary amounts of rain in these particu- 

 lar localities. The difference in the temperature of different 

 portions of a not very extended district in a mountainous 

 country is often considerable. In the process of restoring 

 the equilibrium thus temporally destroyed, currents and 

 eddies of wind are propagated, and are often the causes of 

 sudden and strong gusts which rush down the sides of the 

 mountains, and agitate the surface of the adjoining lakes, to 

 the risk of the slight sailing vessels that are kept on most 

 of the larger sheets of water in the district. The agitation 

 of the surface is often attributed by the natives to what are 

 termed ' bottom winds,' or violent currents of air rising from 

 the bottoms of the lakes, and thus causing these agitations 

 of the surface. The various directions of the winds among 

 the masses of the mountains, at no great distance from each 

 other, may be ascribed to the various deflections of the 

 aerial currents, occasioned by the different positions of the 

 flanks of the hills, turning the direction of the current from 

 its original course, so that a wind from the west, for instance, 

 may be deflected by the flank of a mountain and become a 

 north-west or south-west wind at another part near to the 

 same place, according as the face of the hill may tend in 

 one direction or the other. But little dependence on the 

 probable changes of the weather can be placed in the direc- 



