26 NATURAL HISTORY of NO RWAT. 



lefs they fpeedily reach the open air their health is endangered. Thefe 

 rain-clouds are like fpunges fwelled with water, and on any pref- 

 fure, or when driven againft the mountains, difcharge their waters 

 in heavy rains, and caufe that conftant humidity *. On this ac- 

 count, indeed, Bergen is not fo pleafant to live in as feveral other 

 places in Norway are ; and the women, who feldom have the ufe 

 of coaches, are in all weathers obliged to wear a woollen or filken 

 black veil over their heads, whilft the men fecure themfelves from 

 the rain by rain-hats, made like umbrellas. 



SECT. XIII. 



The wife dir- As one of my chief views in this work is, according to my 

 Providence in fhallow knowledge and infight into the harmony of things, to 

 mew that all the works of God are full of loving kindnefs, I 

 muft here obferve that the moift and rainy weather, which pre- 

 vails all over the weftern coaft of Norway, but chiefly about 

 Bergen, is excellently adapted to the neceflities of the country, 

 and in feveral refpects contributes to its welfare. Firft, it is of 

 great benefit to the countryman in his corn and hay-harveft, for 

 the thin furface of earth on the high rocky mountains, which 

 line the weftern coaft, requires a great deal of moifture, other- 

 wife it would not yield even grafs, and much lefs would it 

 produce corn ; it would literally anfwer to the parable of the 

 feed, which fell on a rock and withered away, becaufe it lacked 



* Edward Dapper, in his voyage to Africa, page 56 — 58, thus accounts for the 

 heavy rains in Ethiopia, which caufe the famous inundations of the Nile, " the fun- 

 beams, fays he, exhale the vapours ; afterwards the middle air, which is cold, and 

 adheres to the cold fummits of the mountains, diffipates the clouds which the north- 

 wind has aggregated, or difcharges them in rain." What this writer attributes folely 

 to the north-wind, profeffor Kraft, on better grounds, judges to be an effect of that 

 attraction which is moft difcernible on high mountains, but in fome meafure affects 

 the whole globe, which revolving like a wheel, has an attractive power : His words 

 are thefe, " I have often obferved in fair weather the high mountains to be covered 

 with a thick cloud, as foon as there is the leaft hazinefs in the air, and from hence 

 it is that in mountainous countries, the rains are both more frequent and more vio- 

 lent, than in a champain country." The fingle caufe of this, is, the attraction of the 

 mountains, for the attractive power of large mountains, may in fome meafure be 

 proportionate to the attractive power of the earth ; therefore when neither of thefe 

 attractions are impeded in their operations, and the proportion is adjufted, the di- 

 rection in which a particle floating in the air moves towards the mountain may be 

 determined. This is proved from the ingenious obfervation made by Meff. Bou- 

 ger and de la Condamine, on a mountain called Chimboraco, in Peru, when their 

 plummet was by the mountain drawn afide from its perpendicular direction. The 

 fprings found on the tops of mountains are produced by this attraction ; and as many 

 particles of matter as are feen in connection, fo many inftances are there of this at- 

 tractive power. Reflections on the Newtonian and Cartefian Syfcems, by profeffor 

 Kraft, in Actis Soc. Hafnienf. Tom. in. p. 284. fq. 



! moifture 



