198 CLIMATE. 



Christmas ; but the \Yhole of the cold season is generally 

 marked by the total absence of rain. It is remarkable how 

 invigorating the cold bracing wind of the north, and the 

 pure elastic air and clear sky of tliese months, prove to the 

 European constitution, harassed and broken down by the 

 previous long continuance of moist and oppressive weather. 

 The appetite and strength, which had long before failed, 

 now return, and the whole frame becomes light and springy. 

 Vegetable nature partakes of the generally salubrious effects 

 of the season ; and garden plants and exotics, at all other 

 times killed by the excessive heats, now grow with fresh- 

 ness and vigour. 



The hot season may be considered to set in fairly witli 

 March. The sun now becomes very powerful, and the 

 days are warm, and even hot. They are however'pre- 

 vented from being oppressive by the strong and steady* 

 •winds uniformly blowing from the south. Fogs are yet 

 not uncommon in the mornings ; and as they clear up, go to 

 the north to form, with the thick dispersed masses of clouds 

 that are constantly drifted along the horizon by the wind, 

 materials for the approaching storms. Thes(^ storms, which 

 by the inhabitants are termed north-westers, do not, however, 

 generally occur till towards the middle and end of the month. 

 They are usually preceded, during several days, by cloudj"- 

 mornings and strong gales. Then, for one or two evenings, 

 comes on distant thunder, with strong gusts of wind, but 

 without rain. Towards the afternoon of the day in which 

 the storm is to occur, the wind, that during the morning 

 and forenoon had been continued and boisterous, begins to 

 fail, and at length settles into a dead calm. The air becomes 

 oppressively sultry. The clouds gather in the north-west, 

 and form a deep, dense, lowering bank. Vivid lightning, 

 accompanied with heavy thunder, and gradually advancing 

 nearer and nearer, indicates the immediate approach of the 

 stonn. At length the calm is suddenly interrupted by a tre- 

 mendous burst of wind, and by clouds of dust which darken 

 the horizon. Then follow torrents of rain, with close and 

 heavy thunder ; and these are soon succeeded by a serene 

 sky and cool air. The appearance, however, of these sud- 

 den commotions is not always the same. Sometimes a 

 shower of hailstones precedes, or comes in the place of the 

 heavy fall of rain ; sometimes there is no rain, even when 



