ON CLIMATES AND WINDS. 705 



properties of elastic fluids : thus, at an elevation of 1 mile above the sea, the 

 mean height of the barometer is 244- inches, and at £ miles, 20 inches only. 

 The use of the barometer, in foretelling variations of weather, is perhaps more 

 limited than has sometimes been supposed; but by a careful observation, con- 

 clusions may be drawn from it, which may in many cases be of considerable 

 utility: and it has even been applied with success, by some late navigators, to 

 the prediction of changes of wind, sit times when they could not have been 

 suspected from any other circumstances. 



