VOL. LXXI.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 23 



into the room, and a stone, about 8 inches square, forced out of the wall into 

 the middle of the room, not far from the body. The butler was a yard or two 

 behind the coachman, and going out with a telescope in his hand, which was 

 forced in pieces from him, his hat and wig were thrown to some distance, and 

 he perceived a violent pressure on his skull and on his back, but was no other- 

 wise hurt. He had a silver watch with a silver chain, which received no damage. 

 In the room over Mr. Adair's, a young lady was dressing, and her maid attend- 

 ing. They were both driven to a distant part of the room, and rendered insen- 

 sible for some time, but not hurt. The posts of the bed she had just left were 

 all shivered to pieces, and the bell wires destroyed, and the chimney thrown 

 down on the roof. 



Though the bodies of the two servants lay unburied from Sunday till Tues- 

 day, all their limbs were as entirely flexible as those of a living person. Multi- 

 tudes on the shore before the house saw the meteor dart in a right line over their 

 heads, and break against the front of the house in different directions, and all 

 agreed that the form and flame was exactly like that of an immense sky-rocket. 



IF. An Account of the Harmattan, a singular African Wind. By Matthew 



Dobson, M. D., F. R. S. p. 46. 



The harmattan is a periodical wind, which blows from the interior parts of 

 Africa towards the Atlantic Ocean, and possesses such extraordinary properties, 

 as to merit the attention of the naturalist, making a curious and important 

 article in the history and theory of the winds. It is from the materials furnished 

 by Mr. Norris, that the following account is drawn up. 



On that part of the coast of Africa which lies between Cape Verd and Cape 

 Lopez, an easterly wind prevails during December, January, and February, 

 which by the Fantees, a nation on the Gold Coast, is called the harmattan. 

 Cape Verd is in 15° n. latitude, ind Cape Lopez in 1° s. latitude, and the coast 

 between these two capes runs, in an oblique direction, nearly w. s. w. to e. s. e. 

 forming a range of upwards of 2100 miles. At the Isles de Los, which are a 

 little to the northward of Sierra Leone, and to the southward of Cape Verd, it 

 blows from the e. s. e. on the Gold Coast from the n. e. and at Cape Lopez and 

 the river Gabon, from the n. n. e.. This wind is, by the French and Portugueze 

 who frequent the Gold Coast, called the n. e. wind, the quarter from which it 

 blows. The English, who sometimes borrow words and phrases from the 

 Fantee language, which is less guttural and more harmonious than that of their 

 neighbours, adopt the Fantee word harmattan. The harmattan comes on 

 indiscriminately, at any hour of the day, at any time of the tide, or at any 

 period of the moon, and continues sometimes only a day or two, sometimes 5 

 or 6 days, and it has been known to last 15 or l6 days. There are generally 3 



