If It Turn Out Again Out Of The South


If it turn out again out of the South to the North East with Rain,

and continues in the North East two Days without Rain, and neither

turns South nor rains the third Day, it is like to continue North

East for two or three months.



The Wind will finish these Turns in three Weeks.



THIS Observation is of the same nature with the former, and is plainly

deduced from long experience. Our Author see
s to contradict himself in

saying that these Winds finish their Turns in three Weeks, but his true

Meaning certainly is, that they are \about three Weeks in turning from

the South to the North East again. Some very great men have laid it

down as a thing certain, that the Variations of the Wind are to be

accounted for by the Alteration of the Balance of the Air, occasioned

by the different Effects of Heat and Cold; but other Writers again

insist very copiously on the Effects which Winds have upon the Air, and

thus confound us in a Circle of Causes and Effects, whence it is plain

that they do not thoroughly understand the Subject themselves, and

therefore it is no Wonder that they are not able to explain it to

others.



IN some Parts of the World, and especially between the Tropicks, the

Winds are regular, and therefore our Philosophers seem to talk more

rationally about them. But in our Northern Countries the Alterations of

the Wind are so frequent, sudden, and often so little agreeable to the

Season, that such general Reasonings will by no Means serve to explain

them. It is however very reasonable to suppose that the same general

Cause prevails here as between the Tropics, but with less Certainty,

because the Power of the Sun is not so great, and the Determinations of

the Winds depend on the Situation of Mountains, Rocks, and Woods, which

direct the Air driving against them into certain Courses, so that it is

impossible to explain, or indeed to judge of the Course of the Winds

till the Country is thoroughly known, and all those Eminences that can

affect the Winds are well considered.



FROM these Reflections the Value of our Shepherd's Observations will

clearly appear. He was not Philosopher enough to talk in this Style,

but by a long and steady Attention he came to know, experimentally,

what perhaps few Philosophers, with all their Sagacity, would have been

able to have found out.



More

;