^ natural history 
the Cornifh tongue, Lagas-auel ; that is, the weather’s eye ; and 
pronounce it a certain fign of hard rain. Notwithftanding this, 
the Mercury fell only two tenths of an inch, and on Saturday 
night there was no rain. Sunday morning was dry, but not clear ; 
and about eleven it began to rain gently, about one, poft merid. a 
flood of rain came on, and continued all Sunday night, and till ten 
the next morning. 
sect. ix. The conjunctions and oppofitions of the Sun and Moon would 
Inconftant, as have a regular effeCt upon the Atmofphere of the Earth, and con- 
t0 w!nd and fequently influence the wind and rain in a regular manner at peri- 
odical diftances of time, if the Atmofphere was always in one fixed 
equal temperature. This we lee plainly demonftrated in a thicker 
medium, by the regular influence of the Sun and moon upon the 
Ocean, where the tides rife and fall as the Moon is perpendicular or 
oblique, in its meridian or decline, and vary generally, though not 
exaCtly, according as the Sun and Moon aCt in concert or oppoiition j 
but the Atmofphere is a much more mixed and complicated body, 
as well as much ealier difturb’d, than the waters ; and in proportion 
as the feveral airy, aqueous, faline, or fulphureous exhalations pre- 
vail at any time, and in any place, the alterations which would 
otherwife regularly follow the pofltions of the Sun, Moon, and 
Earth, are fufpended and controuled, and oftentimes totally pre- 
vented, and the quite contrary efleCt produced, by the more pow- 
erful, though fluctuating and uncertain, combinations of the parts 
of the Atmofphere. 
The weather is therefore inconftant every-where, but in fome 
places more fo than in others. In hot countries it is more inconftant, 
and the alterations more violent, czeteris paribus, than in cold. In 
the Torrid Zone there are more tornadoes and hurricanes than in 
the Temperate Zone ; more inconftancy of weather again in 
the temperate than within and near the Polar Circle, where by 
reafon that the Air is more condenfed, and the Atmofphere fuffers 
lefs alteration from the Sun’s influence and the variety of vapours 
that attend it, the weather is much more uniform, clear, and equable, 
than in warmer climates. In Cornwall it may be reckoned in gene- 
ral as unfettled and various, as to wind and rain, as any-where in 
Britain, fuch fudden tranfitions there are from wet to dry, and from 
calm to tempeft. One of the greateft variations which I have ob- 
ferved in the Mercury of the Barometer, was April 3, 1753 ; when, 
from Tuefday nine o’ clock in the evening, to Wednefday ten 
o’clock in the morning, the Mercury fell ^ parts of an inch, 
the Mercury refting at 28 -* o , which is the lovveft I have ever yet 
noted. It then blew a ftorm, with fome fhowers of hail and rain ; 
and 
