264 THE ATMOSPHERE AND METEOEOLOGY. 



peasants of Switzerland something of the burning climate of the 

 tropics.* 



As to the fearful tempests or tourmentes which occasionally sur- 

 prise the traveller on high mountains or in the snowy plains, they 

 may result from winds blowing from almost any point of the 

 horizon. It is a terrible thing to be assailed by one of these 

 phenomena. The white masses carried by the gusts of wind hide 

 all surrounding objects. The unhappy people lost in this storm 

 see neither the neighbouring slopes nor the sky above their heads, 

 nor even the path beneath their feet. Deafened by the noise of the 

 tempest, blinded by the powdery clouds which lash their faces, frozen 

 by the snow which hangs in stalactites to their hair and changes their 

 clothes into stiff and heavy masses, the travellers soon lose their way, 

 and sink stupefied by the cold. Hundreds of corpses of men and 

 horses, which have fallen here and there in certain passes of the 

 Karakorum and the Himalayas, recall these terrible snow-storms, 

 which have prevailed over these mountains. Accidents of the same 

 kind are very numerous also on the paramos of India, Chili, Bolivia, 

 and Peru. Even the Pyrenees and the Alps, where the most fre- 

 quented passes are provided with hospices, where travellers surprised 

 by the whirlwind of snows may take refuge, many unfortunate 

 persons perish every year in these tourmentes. 



The countries to the south of France have also to submit to 

 the effects of a wind, which is a real scourge ; it is the wind from the 

 north-west, to which popular imagination has given the name of 

 "master" {mistral^ magistraou, maestrale) . It is caused, like the al- 

 ternate winds from the mountains, by the juxtaposition of two 

 surfaces unequally heated. This aerial current is unhappily well- 

 named, for its speed, comparable sometimes to that of the hurricane, 

 suffices to uproot trees and throw down walls. " The melamboreas,'* 

 says Strabo, "is an impetuous and terrible wind, which displaces rocks, 

 precipitates men from their chariots, and strips them of their vestments 

 and arms.'' The Gauls of the valley of the Hhone saw in it their most 

 dreaded god ; they raised altars and offered sacrifices to it ; the Pro- 

 vencals considered it with " Durance," and the " Parliament" as one of 

 their three great calamities. This wind makes itself especially felt in 

 winter and spring, when the Cevennes, covered with snow, have become 

 relatively very cold, and the sea-shores continue to be heated daily by 

 the rays of the sun : then the masses of air roll in volumes from the 

 * Ilelmholz, la Glace et les Glaciers. 



