connection with the Climate of Berlin. 223 



were still possessed by the extraordinary idea that everything con- 

 tained in a newspaper must be true. 



We must riot, however, over-estimate the influence of the configu- 

 ration of the ground and of the soil. They may, indeed, foretell or 

 decide the course of a storm, but they cannot retard continued rain. 

 For even in summer the currents of air are the peculiar precursors, 

 only in very different forms at different seasons of the year ; forms 

 however which are all related to each other. If the south wind in 

 winter rushes very suddenly, and with great force, towards the north, 

 it often announces itself by a magnificent storm, as it did in Decem- 

 ber 1839, when the sky seemed to be rent open by the lightning, and 

 crackling peals of thunder resounded every moment. Unusual warmth 

 is ushered in with storms like these. Later on, the south wind ap- 

 pears in the form of the gentle messenger of spring, beneath whose 

 soft breath nature awakes from her heavy sleep, as out of a long 

 dream, and wakes us with her. The strife between the two currents 

 then becomes animated, for winter disputes every inch of the ground. 

 The cold days " die gestrengen Herren," those hard masters who 

 slew the orangery at St Louis are sent as its last despairing efforts. 

 In summer, the south wind often blows suddenly as out of a fiery 

 oven, and roars furiously around. I remember the passionate raging 

 of this wind during last summer, when it tore off the zinc roof from 

 the Anhalt Tower, and by the manner in which .the trees were rooted 

 up in the Thier Garten, it clearly shewed its power — a storm be- 

 neath whose raging, Germany's most honoured tree, " The beech of 

 Luther," was torn up and destroyed. I do not know where the 

 cradle of this storm was situated, but the newspapers told us that 

 it came over the Alps, so that, at all events, it was not a German 

 wind which was guilty of such crimes. 



We can, however, often trace such storms as these to their origin. 

 They are generally parts of the upper trade winds which, descend- 

 ing too early, come into contact with the lower currents and occa- 

 sion those fearful whirlwinds of the Tropics, the influence of which 

 is felt even in the temperate zones. 



In Emmenthal they have an old legend, that a gigantic serpent 

 lay concealed in the caves of the Hohgant, and that for centuries it 

 had never left its abode, till at last it burst forth suddenly with fear- 

 ful rage. We easily recognize in this gigantic serpent the mountain 

 torrent, which, suddenly swollen by clouds, rushed down into the wind- 

 ings of the valley. Since then nothing more had been heard of the 

 monster, until in August 1837 it again broke forth with such fearful 

 violence that masses of rock of 60 cwt. were hurled before it. The 

 beautiful tale of the " Wassers noth im Emmenthal, by the author 

 of the "Bauern Spiegels," contains a striking description of this great 

 physical phenomenon. But what was it that had scared away the 

 monster from his cave ? A storm of wind from the West India 

 islands. And what a storm ! On the 2d of August 1837, the har- 



Q 2 



