SOUTHERN AFRICAo 
fires during tlie months of July, August, and September. Even 
in October it is not unusual to observe the summits of the 
mountains to the eastward of the Cape isthmus buried in snow. 
Though it has been usual to consider the year at the Cape 
as consisting of two j>eriods, called the good and the bad moo- 
soon, yet, as these are neither regular in their returns, nor cer- 
tain in their continuance, the division into four seasons, as in 
Europe, would appear to be much more proper. The spring, 
reckoned from the beginning of September to that of Decem- 
ber, is the most agreeable season. The summer, from De- 
cember to March, is the hottest. The autumn, from March 
to June, is variable weather, generally fine, and the latter 
part very pleasant. And the winter, from June to Septem- 
ber, though in general pleasant, is frequently very stormy, 
rainy, and cold. The two most powerful winds are the north- 
west and south-east. The first generally commences towards 
the end of May, and blows occasionally till the end of Au- 
gust, and sometimes through the month of September. The 
south-east predominates the rest of the year, and, when the 
cloud shews itself on the mountain, blows in squalls with 
great violence. In the midst of one of these storms the ap- 
pearance of the heavenly bodies, as observed by the Abbe do 
la Caille, is strange and terrible : " The stars look larger, and 
" seem to dance; the moon has an undulating tremor; and 
the planets have a sort of beard like comets." Effects such 
as these are not confined to the Cape alone, but are, in many 
parts of the v/oikl, among the terrifick accompaniments of a 
storm., and are probably occasioned by looking at the objects 
c 2 
