272 NATURAL HISTORY 



23. The dissolution of snow on snowy hills (as we ob 

 served before) always brings constant winds from that part. 



24. Also yearly northern winds about the rising of the 

 dogstar, are held to come from the frozen ocean, and those 

 parts about the arctic circle, where the dissolutions of snow 

 and ice come late when the summer is far spent. 



25. Those masses or mountains of ice which are carried 

 towards Canada and Greenland do rather breed cold gales 

 than moveable winds. 



26. Winds which arise from chalky and sandy grounds 

 are few and dry, and in hotter countries they are sultry, 

 smoky, and scorching. 



27. Winds made of sea vapours do easilier turn back into 

 rain, the water redemanding and claiming its right ; and if 

 this be not granted them they presently mix with air, and 

 so are quiet. But terrestrial, smoky, and unctuous vapours 

 are both hardlier dissolved and ascend higher, and are more 

 provoked in their motion, and oftentimes penetrate the 

 middle region of the air, and some of them are matter of 

 fiery meteors. 



28. It is reported here in England, that in those days 

 that Gascoine was under our jurisdiction, there was a pe 

 tition offered to the king by his subjects of Bordeaux, and 

 the confines thereof, desiring him to forbid the burning of 

 heath in the counties of Sussex and Southampton, which 

 bred a wind towards the end of April which killed their 

 vines. 



29. The meeting of winds, if they be strong, bring forth 

 vehement and whirling winds ; if they be soft and moist, 

 they produce rain, and lay the wind. 



30. Winds are allayed and restrained five ways. When 

 the air, overburthened and troubled, is freed by the vapours 

 contracting themselves into rain ; or when vapours are dis 

 persed and subtilized, whereby they are mixed with the 

 air, and agree fairly with it, and they live quietly ; or when 

 vapours or fogs are exalted and carried upon high, so that 

 they cause no disturbance until they be thrown down from 

 the middle region of the air, or do penetrate it ; or when 

 vapours, gathered into clouds, are carried away into other 

 countries, by other winds blowing on high, so that for them 

 there is peace in those countries which they fly beyond ; 

 or, lastly, when the winds, blowing from their nurseries, 

 languish through a long voyage, finding no new matter to 

 feed on, and so their vehemency forsakes them, and they 

 do as it were expire and die. 



