OF WINDS. 273 



31. Rain for the most part allayeth winds, especially 

 those which are stormy ; as winds contrariwise oftentimes 

 keep off rain. 



32. Winds do contract themselves into rain (which is 

 the first of the five, and the chiefest means of allaying 

 them) either being burthened by the burthen itself, when 

 the vapours are copious, or by the contrary motions of 

 winds, so they be calm and mild ; or by the opposition of 

 mountains and promontories which stop the violence of the 

 winds, and by little and little turn them against themselves ; 

 or by extreme colds, whereby they are condensed and 

 thickened. 



33. Smaller and lighter winds do commonly rise in the 

 morning, and go down with the sun, the condensation of* 

 the night air being sufficient to receive them ; for air will 

 endure some kind of compression without stirring or tumult. 



34. It is thought that the sound of bells will disperse 

 lightning and thunder : in winds it hath not been observed. 



Monition. Take advice from the place in prognostics of 

 winds ; for there is some connexion of causes and signs. 



35. Pliny relates, that the vehemence of a whirlwind 

 may be allayed by sprinkling of vinegar in the encounter 

 of it. 



The Bounds of Winds. 



To the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth articles. 



1. It is reported of Mount Athos, and likewise of Olym 

 pus, that the priests would write in the ashes of the sacri 

 fices which lay upon the altars, built on the tops of those 

 hills, and when they returned the year following (for the 

 offerings were annual) they found the same letters undis 

 turbed and uncancelled, though those altars stood not in 

 any temple but in the open air. Whereby it was manifest, 

 that in such a height there had neither fallen rain nor wind 

 blown. 



2. They say that on the top of the Peak of TenerifFe, 

 and on the Andes, betwixt Peru and Chili, snow lieth upon 

 the borders and sides of the hills, but that on the tops of 

 them there is nothing but a quiet and still air, hardly 

 breatheable by reason of its tenuity, which also with a kind 

 of acrimony pricks the eyes and orifice of the stomach, be 

 getting in some a desire to vomit, and in others a flushing 

 and redness. 



3. Vapoury winds seem not in any great height, though 

 it be probable that some of them ascend higher than most 



VOL. xiv. T 



