326 A HRAN. METEOROLOGY. 



three or four miles in diameter, and reflecting the white 

 light in a solid and silvery form. But the same fresh 

 breeze which I had experienced in the boat, covered all 

 the rest of the sea ; terminating precisely at the limits of 

 the cloud, which, for the space of three or four hours that 

 I observed it, seemed to undergo no change of form or 

 dimension. The objects I had in view being accom- 

 plished, I returned to the shore, and got under sail at two 

 o'clock ; steering towards the cloud, but with little hope of 

 finding the vessel, since the fog in which the boat was 

 involved on entering it, was so thick as to render it impos- 

 sible to see fifty yards ahead. Scarcely however had we 

 entered the calm which reigned within the whole space 

 covered by the^ cloud, when, a sudden breeze springing up 

 from the westward, the mist disappeared, and the vessel's 

 sails were seen close at hand and just beginning to fill on 

 the other tack. On inquiry it was found that she had 

 been completely becalmed the whole time, and had not 

 made an inch of way since the morning, while all the ships 

 from the southward, even within a mile, had been stand- 

 ing up the Clyde with their sails full from the south-east. 

 The occurrence of analogous appearances in moun- 

 tainous countries is common, and has been frequently 

 remarked by Alpine travellers; but in those cases, the 

 production of partial currents, or their diversion from a 

 rectilinear course by the interference of high summits, 

 seems generally to afford a ready explanation of these phe- 

 nomena. Even these causes however, will not account 

 for all the complicated appearances which occur; since 

 I have sat for two hours on the top of Ben Lomond, at an 

 elevation considerably greater than that of all the neigh- 

 bouring hills, when not even a feather would have stirred, 

 though a gale of wind has been blowing all around, carry- 

 ing the clouds in hurrying mists above and on all sides, 

 while the lake below was breaking in foam against the 

 shores* It appears equally difficult to explain the present 

 case, since the sudden termination of the easterly breeze 



