but more feebly, in
proportion as the surface of the globe is there more obliquely presented
to its rays. This effect, though not great, is not to be neglected when
the sun is in or near our summer solstice, which is the season of these
easterly breezes. The northern air, too, flowing towards the equatorial
parts, to supply the vacuum made there by the ascent of their heated
air, has only the small rotary motion of the polar latitudes from which
it comes. Nor does it suddenly acquire the swifter rotation of the parts
into which it enters. This gives it the effect of a motion opposed to
that of the earth, that is to say, of an easterly one. And all these
causes together are known to produce currents of air in the Atlantic,
varying from east to northeast, as far as the fortieth degree of
latitude. It is this current which presses our sea breeze out of its
natural southeasterly direction, to an easterly, and sometimes almost a
northeasterly one.

We are led naturally to ask, where the progress of our sea breezes will
ultimately be stopped? No confidence can be placed in any answer to
this question. If they should ever pass the mountainous country which
separates the waters of the ocean from those of the Mississippi, there
may be circumstances which might aid their further progress, as far as
the Mississippi. That mountainous country commences about two hundred
miles from the sea coast, and consists of successive ranges passing
from northeast to southwest, and rising the one above the other to the
Allegany Ridge, which is the highest of all. From that, lower and lower
ridges succeed one another again, till having covered, in the whole, a
breadth of two hundred miles from southeast to northwest, they subside
into a plain, fertile country, extending four hundred miles to the
Mississippi, and probably much further on the other side, towards the
heads of the western waters. When this country shall become cultivated,
it will, for the reasons before explained, draw to it winds from
the east and west. In this case, should the sea breezes pass the
intermediate mountains, they will rather be aided than opposed in their
further progress to the Mississippi. There are circumstances, however,
which render it possible that they may not be able to pass those
intermediate mountains. 1. These mountains constitute the highest lands
within the United States. The air on them must consequently be very cold
and heavy, and have a tendency to flow