330 THEORY OF WINDS. 



regular movements. There would be no sudden 

 mixing of winds from opposite quarters, and no 

 lightning nor rapid precipitations of rain, be- 

 cause there would be a regular gradation of tem- 

 perature and density of the atmosphere from the 

 equator to the poles ; but, as the surface of the 

 earth is diversified by land and water, moun- 

 tains and valleys, hills and plains, unequal tem- 

 peratures in the same latitudes and seasons result, 

 causing all those irregular movements in the 

 atmosphere termed variable winds ; and which 

 can never be predicted with unerring certainty 

 until all these modifying circumstances are clas- 

 sified and reduced to general laws. 



Theory of Hurricanes, Hail Storms, Water 

 Spouts, and Tornados. 



Having shewn in the preceding chapter, that 

 lightning is always attended with the condensa- 

 tion of atmospheric vapour, I shall proceed to 

 prove that no violent squall, hurricane, tornado, 

 or water-spout, ever occurs without the sudden con- 

 densation of aqueous vapour; and that caloric in the 

 concentrated form of lightning, is the active spirit 

 of the storm and tempest, which governs all their 

 powerful movements. 



The Typhon, or ru</>wv of the Greek philoso- 

 phers, was a hurricane accompanied with vivid 



