

THE WEATHER, AND WEATHER PROPHETS. 163 



it is which gives to our west coasts, and to that of Ire- 

 land, their moist and rainy climate double, and more 

 than double, the amount of rain falling annually on the 

 coasts exposed to its full influence, as compared with 

 the eastern coast ; which it does not reach until drained 

 of its excess of humidity. 



(26.) The characters of our North-east winds (for 

 such as are in common parlance called Easterly winds 

 are almost always such) are the reverse of these in every 

 particular. They are cold, dry, and hence often spoken 

 of as cutting, from their parching effect on the skin ; and, 

 as a natural consequence, for the most part accompanied 

 with a clear sky. They are seldom of very long continu- 

 ance, and may be regarded rather as casual winds, except 

 in the spring ; when the advance of the sun to the north 

 of the equator begins to call into action a northern 

 indraft to push to the northward the limit of the north- 

 east trades, and to unsettle by its intrusion the line of 

 demarcation between the wind-zones which its long continu- 

 ance in extreme south latitude, near the winter solstice, had 

 allowed to take up, and rest in, its extreme southernmost 

 position. To this opposition of characters we may add, 

 that the South-west wind is generally accompanied with 

 a lower, and that of the North-east with a higher than 

 average barometric pressure ; a connexion partially, but 

 not entirely, accounted for by the lightness of warm and 

 moist air as compared with cold and dry ; and which is 

 the origin of those indications of the weather (fair, 

 settled fair, rain, much rain, &=c., 6<r.) which we find 

 inscribed opposite to the divisions of the scale of inches 



