Dr. dobson’s Account of the Harmattan, &c. 47 
dire&ion, nearly ftom W.S.W. to E.S.E. forming a range of 
upwards of two thoufand one hundred miles. At the files de 
Los, which are a little to the northward of Sierra Leone, and 
to the Southward of Cape Verd, it blows from the E.S.E. on 
the GoldCoaft from the N.E. and at Cape Lopez and the River 
Gabon from the N.N.E. This wind is, by the French and Portu- 
gueze who frequent the Gold Coaft, called limply the N.E* 
wind, the quarter from which it blows. The Englifh, who 
fometimes borrow words and phrafes from the Fantee language* 
which is lefs guttural and more harmonious than that of their 
neighbours, adopt the Fantee word Harmattan. 
The Harmattan comes on indifcriminately at any hour of the 
day, at any time of the tide, or at any period of the Moon, 
and continues fometimes only a day or two, fometimes five or 
fix days, and it has been kno\yn to laft fifteen or fixteen days* 
There are generally three or four returns of it every feafon. It 
blows with a moderate force, not quite fo ftrong as the fea 
breeze (which every day fets in during the fair feafon from the 
W. W.S.W. and 3 .W.) ; but fomewhat ftronger than the land 
wind at night from the N. and N.N.W. 
1. A fog or haze is one of the peculiarities which always ac- 
companies the Harmattan. The gloom occafioned by this fog 
is fo great, as fometimes to make even near objects obfcure* 
The Englifh fort at Whydah ftands about the midway between 
the French and Portuguefe forts, and not quite a quarter of a 
mile from either, yet very often from thence neither of the 
other forts can be difcovered* The fun, concealed thegreatefh 
part of the day, appears only about a few hours about noon, and 
then of a mild red, exciting no painful fenfation on the eye. 
As the particles which conftitute the fog are depofited on the 
grafs, the leaves of trees, and even on the ikin of the negroes,, 
fo 
