BOOK m. CHAP. VII. 6oi 



The land-wind is more or Icfs predominnit ovei- a moderate 

 breeze, according to the greater or lefs quantity of" rain that has 

 fallen inland ; io that fometimes the land-wind is partial, ext nding 

 over a particular tra£t of country; whilft other places, fituate to 

 the Eaftward and Weftward more remote from the rain, are not 

 at all afteded by it, but have their fea-breeze uninterrupted. 



Rain falls heaviefl: in the mountains; the clouds tend to them; 

 the atmofphere of the woods probably attracts in fome degree ; the 

 rains have been known to fail, in fome parts, near a range of high 

 hills, after the woods were cut down: befides, the vapours are 

 there, as it were, entangled; bandied about by contrary floods of 

 air; reverberated in a variety of directions by the various confi- 

 guration of high lands, vallies, gullies, and other channels, as it 

 happens among the flreets, fquares, alleys, high and low buildings 

 of a large city. The land-wind, following rain, proceeds from 

 that quarter where the rain has fallen heavieft, and feems to be 

 nothing more than a denfe, moid vapour, ruftiing towards the 

 heated, dry, and rarefied atmofphere in the lowlands, and near the 

 coalt. 



In Spain, North-America, and fome other countries, which have 

 hot fummers, the cold particles, brought by Northerly winds into 

 mountainous diftricfts, frequently rufli down upon the inhabitants 

 in the lowlands during the fummer heats, and condenfe the air 

 below to fuch a degree, that they are fuddenly benumbed. This 

 would probably be the cafe in Jamaica alfo, if it cont^iined any 

 mountains of fuch altitude as to be cloathed with perpetual fnow on 

 their fummits, like the Cordilleras of South-America. The fea- 

 breeze, though it flackens towards evening, and then difcontinues 

 on (hore, yet continues blowing all night at about ten or twelve 

 leagues diftance from the coaft. The reafon of this may be, that, 

 in the day-time, the land being greatly heated, and the air which 

 fucceffively covers it much rarefied, the breeze naturally ruflies to 

 reflore an equilibrium, and holds on Its current, till the fun ceafes 

 to a£l upon the land. The frigorlhc particles, then defending 

 from a great height upon the mountains, proceed on towards the 

 coaft-, weakening the impulfe of the fea-wlnd (which is warmer 

 and more rarefied) as it goes ; and thence it blows out to fea, to 

 Vol. II. 4 H the 



