C 447 ] 
ft comes up to the reprefentations that have been 
made of it, I £hall not much hefitate to believe the 
old Gentleman in another more wonderful pheno- 
menon, he relates, of hilling a temped; only by 
throwing up a little vinegar into the air. 
Extra# of a Letter to Dodlor brown rigg from 
Do#Or FRANKLIN. 
London, Nov. 7, 1773. 
DEAR SIR’,, 
I thank you for the remarks of your learned 
friend at Carlille. — 1 had, when a youth, read and 
fjniled at pliny’s account of a practice among the 
Teamen of his time, to hill the waves in a florm by 
pouring oil into the fea ; which he mentions, as well 
as the ufe made of oil by the divers ; but the ftiiling 
a tem-peft by throwing vinegar into the air had efcaped 
me. I think with your friend, that it has been of late too. 
much the mode to flight the learning of the antients. 
The learned, too, are apt to flight too much the 
knowledge of the vulgar. The cooling by evapora- 
tion was long an inflanceof the latter. This art of 
fmoothing the waves with oil, is an inlfance of both. 
Perhaps you may not diftike to have an account 
of all 1 have heard, and learnt, and done in this 
way. Take it if you pleafe as follows. 
In 1757, being at fea in a fleet of 96 fail bound 
againfl Louifoourg, I obferved the wakes of two of 
the fhips to be remarkably fmootb, while all the 
others were, ruffled by the wind, which blew frelh. 
Being puzzled with the differing appearance, I at 1 aft 
