258 Proximate Causes of certain Winds and Storms. 



Good Hope, as quoted by Cotte. Ouragan and hurricane are the 

 same word, and stand for very nearly the same idea in the two lan- 

 guages. 



(/i.) " Le meme Academicien (Guettard) a observe que le vent 

 le plus dominant, (at Warsaw) est le Sud-Ouest qui y cause souvent 

 des ouragans, ensuite le Sod et enfin le Nord et le Nord-Ouest."* 



{i.) Russel states, that at Aleppo, in the month of September, 

 " Lightnings are very frequent in the night time, and if they are seen 

 in the western hemisphere, they portend rain, often accompanied, with 

 thunder.'''' There is litde room for doubt, that all the thunder- 

 storms that occur there, come from the same quarter, but I have met 

 with no passage that is quite decisive. f 



{h.) Compare Joshua, x, 11 — 1 Sam. vii, 10, and xii, 18 — 1 

 Kings, xviii, 41 to 46 — and Luke xii, 54, for the time and course 

 of the thunderstorms in Palestine ; especially the latter text : " When 

 ye see a cloud rise out of the west, straightway ye say there cometh 

 a shower ; and so it is." In the other cases, there was a particular 

 interposition of the Deit}^, but in such a way doubtless as to produce 

 effects according to the ordinary course of nature. Hence, after 

 there had been " a sound of abundance of rain" or thunder, Elijah 

 went to the top of Carmel, and sent his servant to look westward 

 over the Great Sea : there arose at first " a little cloud out of the 

 sea like a man's hand," but the heaven was soon " black with clouds 

 and wind, and there was a great rain." It is stated particularly that 

 these occurrences were some time after mid-day. Verse 29. 



(Z.) " In the beginning of April, and sometimes earlier, particular- 

 ly in the south-eastern quarter of Bengal, there are frequent storms 

 of thunder, lightning, wind and rain, from the north-west quarter, 

 which happen more frequently towards the close of the day than at 

 any other time. These squalls moderate the heat, and continue un- 

 til the setting in of the periodical rains." It is stated farther, that 

 " during the dry season, the heat of the middle districts is lessened 

 by occasional thunderstorms, named north-wester s.''^'^ 



(w.) "Thunderstorms are very frequent at Batavia, especially to- 

 wards the conclusion of the Monsoons, when they occur almost every 

 evening."*^ 



* Cotte, Vol. i, p. 365. 



t See Calmet's Dictionary, Voi. iii, p. 497. 



t Hamilton's account of Hindostan. § Stockdale's Java, p. 36. 



