[999] 
firft is of the coiirie of the weather under or near the Line* 
1 have read in the 2d,^ and 4th, parts Fur chas his Pi' l- 
grims^ (and I doubt not but later Travellers atteft the 
lame truth,} that in Brafd and Guiana in America 5 in 
Guinea^ Con^o and jEthiopia m Africa ^ in the Eaji -Indies 
and the Maidive I/lands, they have almoft continual 
floods of rain from about the beginning of iW^y to the 
end of Aiiguji^ which they call their Winter, and th€ reit 
of the Months of the year fair and clear weather, which 
they call their Summer ^ fo that when the Sun is neareit 
to them they have conftant rains, and when remoteft, 
fair weather. And this I impute amongft other caufes to 
the extraordinary rarefaction of the Air and leflening of 
its fpecifical gravity there at that time, fo that the Va- 
pours in the Neighbouring parts of the Air do all flow 
thither, anddefcend as it were in floods of rain. And 
as this is reckoned to be the caufe of the Inundation of 
the Nile and fome other Rivers, fo perhaps this may be 
the reafon alio why thole Countries which are Neigh- 
bouring to them, and fomewhat remoter from the Line, 
fuch as -^^ypt and the like, have feldom or never 
any rain. 
My 2d,Obfervation is.of the Barofcope vi^, that when 
the Wind is North, North-Eaft, or North- Weft, the 
Mercury ever rifes, and fo the Air is heavier, but when 
the Wind comes from the South, South-Eaft, or South- 
Weft, it falls and fo the Air's gravity islefsj by which 
we may fee what Influence the Cold and Heat have upon 
the Airs weight; and you know a Cold Wind isfaidto 
drive the Sails of a Ship much more forcibly then a 
Warm. 
My 3d, Obfervatioa is of an Experiment of the Ho- 
nourable Mr. Boyle as I find it fet down in the Philolo- 
phical Tranfadtions Numb, 6 7,. Pag. 2048, 2049. I 
made, faith he, by Diftillation a blood red Liquor, which 
cheitily confifted of fuch faline Spirituous particles as 
C c may 
