20- 
Ti he Natural Hiftory of the Book I. 
Where the Soil is black, as it imbibes the Rays of the Sun, and 
refle&ts few or none, there the circumambient Air is not near fo hot as 
where the Soil is fandy, or gravelly ; for moft, if not all Bodies, reflect 
the folar Rays, in proportion to their refpective Denfity and Smoothneds ; 
fo that by how much the more folid and polifhed the Particles of a fandy 
or gravelly Soil are, than black Mould, by fo much the more intenfe 
will the Heat of their Reflexion be. <i 
It is owing to thefe refleéted Rays, and the Want of Moifture, that the 
Blades of Canes, as well as other Plants, are more apt to fcorch in fandy, 
or gravelly, than in a black Soil: And, as the Fertility of this, as well 
as others of the #¢/-India Ilands, depends upon {eafonable Rains, the 
long Chains of (25) Hills, interfperfed with deep Valleys, are therefore 
providentially fituated to the Eaftward of fome Parts of the Iland, to 
intercept the Clouds and Vapours: For, if the Wind, at Eaft, drives 
before it even a thin fcattered Cloud towards the Welt, this, as long as it 
is not augmented. by adventitious Exhalations, will hover in the Air ; but 
as foon as it comes oppofite to,, and as low as thefe Hills, the impelling 
Force of the Wind at Eaft, and the Refiftance of the now clofe oppofite 
Hills will compel thefe thin watry Veficles to coalefce and affociate into 
Drops ; by which means this thick Collection of Water becomes fo denfe, 
‘that its Gravity is greater than the Strength of the Air in that Situation 
can uphold, and it defcends therefore in refrefhing Rain ; but, when the 
Colleétion of Vapours is not fo great as to form Clotds, and if thefe are 
not raifed before the Cold of the Evening above the Height of the Hills 
and Clifts, being then deftitute of their chiefeft Caufe of Expanfion, I 
mean the Heat of the Sun, they then are compreffed, and defcend in foft 
Mifts upon the Earth ; yet in far greater Quantity, for the Reafons above- 
mentioned, upon the Sides of thefe refifting Hills to the Eaftward. It is 
partly from hence, and not intirely, as fome imagine, from the fuperior 
Excellency of the Soil, that particular Parts of Sz. Fofeph’s and St. 
Andrews Parifhes yield a more certain, and often better Increafe, than 
moft other Parts of the Ifland. 
This is fo remarkably true in general, that it hath been obferved, that 
as long as the Wind blows oppofite to one Side of the high Mountains, 
near the Ganges, they have no Rain on the other Side, the Clouds being 
intirely broken by the Refiftance of thofe very high Hills. And, as the 
Winds in and near England blow near half the Year from the Weftward 
Points, it muft follow, that the Clouds and Vapours are, in a great mea- 
fure, carried that Way : If thefe, as in England, are in their Courfe inter- 
cepted 
(25) That a long Chain of Hills is very ferviceable to intercept the Clouds and 7 
early as the Time of A%o/es; for, in his Defcription of the Lana Canaan, he ee eae aE 
Yael, The Land whither thou sf in to poffefs it, is not as the Land of Egypt, from whence ye came out, wh : 
thou wateredft thy Seed with thy oot, as a Garden of Herbs ; i.e. In Egypt (as the learned Dr. Shane Here 
Travels, obferves) the Zgyptians, for want of feafonable Rains, were obliged to water their Grou a a 
artificial Canals, which received the Waters upon the Overflowing of the Nile. But the Land hie is b 
2 Poff ike a soe of jee a oa bik a peal Water of the Rain of Heaven; a Land Me bab 
ora thy Goa careth for: The Lyes of the Lord t, od are always upon it fr SH of Bian fi 
the End of the Year. Deut. xi. 10, 11, 12. ys upon it from the Beginning of the Year even unto 
