1837.] On the Revolution of the Seasons. 303 



IV. — On the Revolution of the Seasons, {continued from Vol. IV. 

 p. 257.) By the Rev. R. Everest. 



A correspondence between certain atmospheric phenomena, and 

 certain positions of the moon, similar to what we have attempted to 

 trace in the preceding papers, has been observed before in various 

 ways, by others, and, in a degree, in all ages. But the objection may 

 be fairly urged to such attempts, that, if we examine the supposed 

 correspondence closer, no regular succession of phenomena can be 

 made out. No state of the atmosphere can be expected to return of 

 a certainty upon the recurrence of the assumed cause : nor, in such 

 cases, can any probable circumstance be assigned, which might be 

 supposed to have counteracted its operation. We may remark, how- 

 ever, upon this, that no two cases are precisely similar ; one of the 

 principal conditions of the problem, viz. the heating surface of the 

 earth, never remaining the same, owing to the changes continually 

 brought about in it, both by natural agents, and by the hand of man. 

 Nor can the effect of this last be deemed unimportant, if we consider 

 the many common processes, such as the felling of forests, ploughing, 

 reaping, and irrigating, which are going on, at all times, more or less, 

 over large tracts of country ? Let us suppose it possible that a local 

 irregularity of some kind might interrupt the operation of the cause — 

 say (for instance) to such a degree, that the shower, which should 

 have fallen with us, fell 5, or 50, or 500 miles distant from us ; then, 

 if, instead of the results of a single rain-guage or a single barometer, 

 we could measure the amount of effect produced over an extensive 

 surface of the earth, we might the more reasonably hope to obtain 

 some approximation towards a regular succession of phenomena, in 

 proportion as we were thus enabled to obviate the effects of disturb- 

 ing causes. It occurred from this, that, in a country where the har- 

 vest depended almost entirely upon the quantity of rain that fell, the 

 prices of grain in past years (the averages being taken as extensively 

 as possible) might indicate, though imperfectly, a regular succession 

 of the seasons, as far as drought and moisture were concerned ; pro- 

 vided, of course, that such a regular succession had actually taken 

 place. 



This idea may appear so strange to many, especially to those who 

 are not acquainted with the interior of India, that it may be as well to 

 give it a little further consideration. 



It must be familiar to every one that parts of the ancient world, 

 such as Egypt and Judea, were subject at different times to famines 

 2 r 2 



