I 8 VOYAGE IN SEARCH 



for the earth is not fufficiently attenuated to 

 retain the rain water, which filtering through 

 thefe volcanic fubftances, in general runs and 

 discharges itfelf into the ocean, without having 

 formed any rivulets *. 



As foon as we had pafTed through thefe thick 



v mills, we enjoyed the fined, fight of which it is 



. poifiblc to form an idea. The clouds that had 



.been juft gathering beneath us, mingled them- 



; feives in the diuance with the waters of the fca, 



concealing from us the view of the iiland ; we 



beheld the cleareft iky ; the Peak appeared then 



like an . ifland, the bale of which teemed to 



fye immerged in a vaft ocean. 



Scarccly had I got out of the clouds, when I 



i"aw for a moment a phenomenon whieh I had 



had occafion to obferve fevcral times during my 



. iiay on the high mountains of Kefrouan, in Afia 



* It is to be remarked, tlat when high mountains are ftrongly 



heated by the rays of the fun, they become a fort of focus, above 



which rifes the furrounding air, on account of the dilatation 



which it experiences therefrom ; whence refults the abundance 



of the more diftant air, which, comingto replace that which rifes, 



brings with it the clouds it is charged with, as I have had an op- 



inity of remarking very frequently on IMouiit Libanus, 



where this phenomenon never failed to happen about five o'clock 



fternoon, in the heat of the month of Auguft, when loo 



violent an agitation of the atmofphere did not counteract this 



: haps the fole caufc of the apparent at- 



;louds by mountains. 



Minor, 



