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.