9$ UNITED STATES. 



toward Blue Ridge with an east or north-east win^, 

 perfectly stopping there, and rennaining stationary, 

 then dissolving into rain, or turning back again, 

 driven by the south-west wind, which in its turn 

 prevails for a few hours. Mr. Volney was a 

 witness of this spectacle the evening he spent at 

 Rock-fish gap on Blue Ridge, and his host, though 

 he was no natural philosopher, accounted for it very 

 satisfactorily. 



It is only about the summer solstice, that the 

 south-west wind prevails on the Atlantic coast in a 

 manner more constant than any other. There it 

 becomes the principal agent in those storms, which 

 are frequent in the months of July and August. 



The autumnal equinox brings on a change in the 

 direction of the current of air, and then its opposite, 

 the north-east, is predominant forty or fifty days, 

 though it does not exclusively prevail. After this 

 period tlie south-west wind, which had not been 

 completely extinguished, revives, and shares the 

 remainder of the season with the north-west, that 

 now rouses itself, and with the west, which is the 

 most equable, serene, and pleasant, of ail that blow^ 

 ' on this continent. 



The progress of the south-west in the basin of the 

 Mississippi and Ohio as far as the river St. Law- 

 rence is more regular, and more simple ; in few 

 words we may say, that this wind prevails from 

 Florida to the lakes of Montreal during ten months 

 out of twelve. The two months of its being most 

 rare are those of the winter solstice, during which 

 the north-vv^est and north-east rule the sky. From 

 this period it revives in proportion as the sun ad- 



