118 UNITEB STATES. 



Finally, it is this powerful evaporation in the 

 United States likewise, that causes those immense 

 dews, unknown in the temperate climates. And 

 if the winds here be more rapid, and hurricanes 

 ~ more frequent than in Europe, it is not only because 

 the tropic is less remote, but because the currents of 

 air find no bar to check and fix them. 



Of the electricity of the air* 

 The last meteorological circumstance, in which 

 the air of the American continent differs from that 

 of Europe, is the quantity of electric fluid, with 

 which the former is much Acre highly charged. 

 There is no occasion for any philosophical appara- 

 tus, to render this fact evident to the senses : it is 

 sufficient to draw a silk ribbon briskly over a piece 

 of woollen cloth, to see it contract with a prompti- 

 tude never observed in France. Storms too afford 

 terrifying proofs of it in the loudness of the claps of 

 thunder, and the prodigious vividness of the flashes 

 of lightning. They frequently occasion melancholy 

 accidents, particularly in the country, underneath 

 trees ; and the people are not sufficiently acquainted 

 with the efficacy of oiled or varnished silk or cloth, 

 which are the best preservatives on such occasions, 

 while at the same time they are a defence against 

 the rain. 



This abundance of the electric fluid is an addi- 

 tional proof of the dryness of the air, as its inferior 

 quantity in France and in Europe is a proof of hu- 

 midity. 



