BOOK HI. CHAP. VII. CzT, 



as the air, for (bme days preceding thcfe ftonns, is liot, fuUry, and 

 loaded with inflammable fulphurcoiis vapours, thefe vapours may be 

 thus let off prematurely before too great a quantity of them is collec- 

 ted for a natural explofion, and fo the pabulum of the ftorm be con- 

 fumed. This fcheme puts me in mind of the impudent quack at Port 

 Royal, who, after the earthquake, in 1692, advertized his '■'■ Jpeclfic 

 " pills to prevent earthquakes.^'' The experiment, however, would 

 afTord a very pleafing fight, if it was to be tried from the tops of the 

 Blue Mountains ; but the greated difficulty might be, how to make 

 the. kites afcend in that calm and breathlefs atmofphere, whi^h is 

 obferved for feveral days preceding a florm ; this, 1 muft contefs, is 

 an unlucky clrcumftance, and not eafy to be got over. Let us, not- 

 withftanding, do the juftice to Dr. llales to acknowledge, that, In 

 ftarting fuch a propofal, he begs it may not be treated as ridlculcus^ but 

 jnerely as an experiment worthy to be tried, confidering the great im- 

 portance of the objeft ; if, therefore, no anfwerable fuccel's could pro- 

 bably be hoped from it, we muft at leaft applaud the benevolence of 

 the ingenious author. 



At the beginning of a hurricane, and whilft it rages, there are incef- 

 fant corrulcatlons of a brutiunfuhnen, not fucceeded by any thunder. 

 Thefe feem to be rather of the phofphorus kind, than t!ie matter of 

 real lightning, and appear to generate wind and vapour, accelerating 

 and augmenting, inftead of oppofing, the momentum of the gale. 



But if we admit the doftor's theory, that the atmofphere is replenifhed 

 with fuphurcous vapours, it is wonderful that they fhould remain un- 

 enkindled; or, if exploded, that no thunder fhould follow; on the 

 other hand, muft not luch vapours, if exilting in the air, and hovering 

 over any country, be quickly put in motion, and difperfed by the 

 irrefiftible fury of thefe violent winds, from the inflant they begin to 

 blow there. The inhabitants of fuch a country know, that the ilorm 

 is over, fo foon as they hear thunder. And whenever vehement gufts 

 of wind fct in, with all the fyraptoms of an approaching temped, they 

 are relieved by this found from every apprehenfion. The explofioa 

 of ignited matter, therefore, leems to be the roz/^ ^i? ^r^tY of hurri- 

 canes. And fo far, perhaps, the dodtor's theory may be plaufible ; that, 

 if, upon the immediate appulfe of the ftorm, a fufficlent large body of 

 vapour could be fired in a certain region of the air, and in the fame 

 manner, and with the fame effeft, that the elefiric fluid caufes In dart- 

 ing from one cloud to another, the refiftance, formed by thefe undula- 

 tions in the higher atmofphere repeatedly made for fome time, might 

 poflibly repel the current of wind in a degree, and diminifh its nwmen-- 



tumi. 



