6 NATURAL HISTORY 
obtain in any one place ; and in the year 1752, which we may 
reckon among fome of our moifteft Summers throughout Eng- 
land, more Rain fell at London than at Plymouth, according to an 
eftimate made at both places; and in the Winter 1756, there were 
greater complaints of the exceflive Rains in Eflex and the parts 
about London, than in Cornwall ; however, in general it is other- 
wife : but our Rains in Cornwall are rather frequent than heavy 
and exceftive ; and we have very feldom a day fo thoroughly wet but 
that there is fome intermiffion, nor fo cloudy but that the Sun will 
find a time to fhine ; the caufe of which, I apprehend, is the 
hilly, narrow, ridge-like form of our County, over which the 
Winds make a quick, becaufe they have a fhort paflage, and leave 
not the clouds to hang long in one place, as they do where the 
ground is more champaign, and full of various hollows and trees to 
intercept and detain them. 
Another reafon why we have in Cornwall more Rain than in 
other parts of England, is, becaufe, for three parts in four of the 
year, the Wind blows from the intermediate points of the W eft and 
the South, which Wind coming over a large track of the Atlantic 
Ocean, and confequently fraught with much Wet, aifcharges it’s 
Moifture as foon as the current of Air, which fupported the clouds, 
is diminifhed and broke by the Clifts and Hills. It was an Obfer- 
vation, made by our Saviour r , that the Weftern Winds brought Rain 
in Judea ; and it could not be otherwife, becaufe of their palling 
over lb large a trad! of the Mediterranean. The South Wind, com- 
ing from the Coaft of Africk, had the fame effect in the Adriatick ”, 
and upon the Coaft of Italy and Greece \ 
Madidis Notus evolat alis, 
Terribilem picea tedfus caligine vultum ; 
Barba gravis nimbis, cams fluit unda capillis, 
Fronte fedent nebula?, rorant pennasque finufque. 
The Eaftern Winds, blowing in from the Euxine Sea upon the 
city of Conftantinople, fill the Air with Mifts and Fogs. In all thefe 
inftances the frequent Rains are the confequences of Winds pafiing 
over a large tradt of Water, and this may lead us to the reafon why 
the Winds blow fo much from the South Weft in Cornwall. Certain 
it is, that Winds do generally blow from the Sea u , of which the 
caufe may be, that every current of Air which is produced on the 
Ocean, meeting with no promontories or mountains to reftrain them, 
have their full range towards the oppofite {bores. Add to this, that the 
r Luke xii. 54. “ Dr. Shaw Trav. p. 218. obferves, that at 
* Quo non arbiter Ad rise major. Hor. lib. i, Algiers the Winds blow generally from the Sea, 
Ode iii. from the Weft by the North to the Eaft. 
1 Metam. lib. i. v. 262. 
reflec- 
