314 West and North-West Winds of New-England. 
has been mowed at sucha season, J have observed the 
scythes to be covered with its juice, so thick and viseid, 
and adhering so tenaciously to the scythe, as to oblige 
the mowers to employ the whetstone, not for the sake of 
giving the scythe an edge, but to remove the glutinous sub- 
stance with which it was covered. 
“During the prevalence of these winds, wood burns more 
rapidly, and with a more vivid flame. The flame also makes, 
frequently, a small explosion, (if ] may be allowed'the term,) 
resembling strongly that of a musket, discharged ata very 
great distance. . 
‘All these facts, as it seems to me, are easily explicable 
on the supposition, that the north-west winds have their or- 
igin in the superior regions of the atmosphere. If this 
opinion be admitted, we cannot, I think, be ata loss for 
reasons, why they are instantaneously, and in the winter, 
severely cold; why they commence with violence, and 
terminate suddenly ; why they are remarkably pure, and 
healthy ; why in a singular manner they facilitate combus- 
tion; why they are wholly free from terrene exhalations ; 
why, in many instances, they condense clouds immediately 
vertical, some time before they are perceived to blow on 
the surface ; why they carry clouds, at times, towards the 
south-east, without interrupting at all the blowing ofa south- 
west wind ; and why, inthe month of March, during which 
the westerly winds almost regularly prevail, all kinds of 
wood shrink, and become dry, in a greater degree, than in 
the most intense heat of our summer sun. 
‘« Particularly, the peculiar degree of cold, experienced im 
this country, seemsto be explicable on this groundonly. Ev- 
ery man, accustomed to read even newspapers, knows that 
the air, ata moderate distance from the earth, is usually 
much colder than near the surface. ‘This fact has been so 
often proved by ascending high mountains, and by rising 
into the atmosphere in balloons; and isso evident from the ice ™ 
and snow always visible, even under the equator. at great ele- 
vations, that few persons are ignorant of it. Every degree 
of cold experienced in this country, must naturally be ex- 
pected from winds which have their origin in a superior 
region.” 
