THE ATMOSPHERE AND ITS CURRENTS. 449 



exposed to a fire. Household furniture cracks, the panels of doors split, and any veneered 

 work flies to pieces. Another, and the most striking feature of the harmattan, is its 

 salubrity. Though prejudicial to vegetable life, and occasioning disagreeable parching 

 effects on the human species, yet it is highly conducive to health. Those labouring 

 previously under fevers generally recover during its prevalence, the feeble gain strength, 

 and malignant diseases disappear. It seems that as this wind immediately follows the 

 rainy season on the African coast, during which diseases are induced by an excess of 

 moisture, the harmattan, invested with extraordinary dryness, removes humidity from the 

 atmosphere, and counteracts its effects. 



The Sirocco is analagous to the Khamsin, but milder. It is a hot south-east wind, 

 prevailing in the Mediterranean, in Italy and Sicily, but felt most violently in the country 

 around Naples, and at Palermo. It sometimes commences faintly about the summer 

 solstice, but blows occasionally with great force in the month of July. Mr. Brydone, 

 writing from Palermo, and referring to July 8th, observes : " On Sunday we had the 

 long-expected sirocco wind, which, although our expectations had been raised pretty high, 

 yet I own greatly exceeded them. Friday and Saturday were uncommonly cool, the 

 mercury never being higher than 72 : and although the sirocco is said to have set in 

 early on Sunday morning, the air in our apartments, which are very large, with high 

 ceilings, was not in the least affected by it at eight o'clock, when I rose. I opened the 

 door without having any suspicion of such a change, and indeed I never was more 

 astonished in my life. The first blast of it on my face felt like the burning steam from 

 the mouth of an oven. I drew back my head and shut the door, calling out to Fullarton 

 that the whole atmosphere was in a flame. However, we ventured to open another door 

 that leads to a cool platform, where we usually walk ; this was not exposed to the wind ; 

 and here I found the heat much more supportable than I could have expected from the 

 first specimen I had of it at the other door. It felt somewhat like the subterraneous 

 sweating-stoves at Naples, but still much hotter. In a few minutes we found every fibre 

 greatly relaxed, and the pores opened to such a degree, that we expected soon to be 

 thrown into a profuse sweat. I went to examine the thermometer, and found the air in 

 the room as yet so little affected that it stood only at 73. The preceding night it was at 

 72. I took it out to the open air, when it 'immediately rose to 110, and soon after to 

 112 ; and I am confident, that in our old lodgings, or any where within the city, it must 

 have risen several degrees higher. The air was thick and heavy, but the barometer was 

 little affected it had fallen only about a line. The sun did not once appear the whole 

 day, otherwise I am persuaded the heat must have been insupportable ; on that side of our 

 platform which is exposed to the wind, it was with difficulty we could bear it for a few 

 minutes. Here I exposed a little pomatum, which was melted down as if I had laid it 

 before the fire. I attempted to take a walk in the street, to see if any creature was 

 stirring, but I found it too much for me, and was glad to get up stairs again. This 

 extraordinary heat continued till three o'clock in the afternoon, when the wind changed at 

 once, almost to the opposite point of the compass. " All nature languishes under the 

 influence of this wind ; vegetation droops and withers ; the Italians suffering from it not 

 less than strangers. When any feeble literary production appears, the strongest phrase 

 of disapprobation they can bestow is, era scritto in temps del sirocco, " it was written in 

 the time of the sirocco. " There can be little doubt but that this hot south-east wind 

 sweeps across the Mediterranean from the shores of Africa. It is some compensation that 

 the season of this oppressive blast is also that of the north-east Etesian winds, and not 

 unfrequently, after a few hours' experience of the enfeebling influence of the sirocco, the 

 tramontane, or north wind follows with its invigorating breath. 



Hot winds resembling the sirocco of Sicily and Italy prevail in New South Wales, and 



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