352 PHILOSOPHY OF STORMS. 



who have ever tasted the water in similar cases affirm that 

 it is fresh, (p. 76.) 



188. White squalls (les grains blancs) are very rare, but 

 they are sometimes met with between the tropics, especially 

 near elevated lands; they are generally violent, and of 

 short duration. They often take place when the sky is 

 clear, and without any atmospheric circumstance giving no- 

 tice of their approach. The only thing which indicates 

 their proximity, is the boiling of the sea, which is very 

 much agitated by the violence of the winds. Many of 

 these squalls, which commence either by a little cloud or 

 even without any visible cloud, are very soon accompanied 

 by violent rains and thick clouds, (p. 101.) 



189. The reader will be able to form some idea of the 

 electric theory of M. Peltier from the following very brief 

 extract, p. 145. 



When the cone is formed entirely of the vapors of the 

 cloud, and when its specific gravity does not oppose itself 

 to its descent to the ground, or near the ground, the de- 

 scending cone will have a great power of attraction, and it 

 is not till after they have exchanged their opposite elec- 

 tricities, that the bodies attracted will be repulsed. But if, 

 on the contrary, the descending cone is maintained at a 

 great height, if it is vapors or dust raised from the earth, 

 which form the lower part, and go to neutralize the elec- 

 tricity of the clouds at that distance, -the terrestrial objects 

 placed near the ascending cone, being electrized in the same 

 manner as it, will be repelled and projected from the cen- 

 tre to the circumference, with a violence proportioned to the 

 extent and force of the electric tension, which the ascend- 

 ing cone possesses. Thus two sorts of tensions may exist 

 in the lower portion of spouts, according to their origin, 

 and may thus produce two contrary effects on terrestrial 

 objects. 



If this portion is a dependence of the cloud, the terres- 



