THE EARTH. 249 



fill they had no other resource but begging for their subsistence. 

 This calamity chiefly owes its advancement to a north or an east 

 wind, raising the sand, which is extremely fine, in such great 

 quantities, and with such velocity, that M. Deslands, who gave 

 the account, says, that while he was walking near the place, 

 during a moderate breeze of wind, he was obliged, from time to 

 time, to shake the sand from his clothes and his hat, on which 

 it was lodged in great quantities, and made them too heavy to 

 be easily borne. Still further, when the wind was violent it 

 drove the sand across a little arm of the sea, into the town of 

 Roscoff, and covered the streets of that place two feet deep ; so 

 that they have been obliged to carry it oflf in carts. It may 

 also I;e observed, that there are several particles of iron mixed 

 with the sand, which are readily affected by the loadstone. 

 The part of the coast that furnishes these sands is a tract of 

 about four leagiies in length, and is upon a level with the sea at 

 high-water. The shore lies in such a manner as to leave its sands 

 subject only to the north and east winds, that bear them farther 

 up the shore. It is easy to conceive how the same sand that has 

 at one time been borne a short way inland, may by some suc- 

 ceeding and stranger blast be carried up much higher ; and thus 

 the whole may continue advancing forward, deluging the plain, 

 and totally destroying its fertility. At the same time the sea, 

 from whence this deluge of sand proceeds, may furnish it in in. 

 exhaustible quantities. This unhappy country, thus overwhelm- 

 ed in so singular a manner, may well justify what the ancients 

 and the moderns have reported concerning those tempests ot 

 sand in Africa, that are said to destroy villages, and even armies, 

 in their bosom."* 



• In Sicily a wind is known by the name of the Sirocco, so called because 

 it ig supposed to blow from Syria. Its medium heat is calculated at 112 de- 

 grees : it is fatal to vegetation, and destructive to mankind, and especially 

 to strangers ; it depresses the spirits in an unusual degree ; it suspends the 

 powers of digestion, so that those who ventiu-e to eat a heavy supper, while 

 this wind prevails, are commonly found dead in their beds the next morning, 

 of what is (tailed an indigestion. The sick at that afflicting period commonly 

 gink under the pressure of their diseases ; and it is customary in the morn- 

 \ng, after this wind has continued a whole night, to inquire who is dead. 



