d straights, which often influence the constitution
and current of the air. About the winter solstice, the people of Nice
expect wind and rain, which generally lasts, with intervals, 'till the
beginning of February: but even during this, their worst weather, the
sun breaks out occasionally, and you may take the air either a-foot or
on horseback every day; for the moisture is immediately absorbed by the
earth, which is naturally dry. They likewise lay their account with
being visited by showers of rain and gusts of wind in April. A week's
rain in the middle of August makes them happy. It not only refreshes
the parched ground, and plumps up the grapes and other fruit, but it
cools the air and assuages the beets, which then begin to grow very
troublesome; but the rainy season is about the autumnal equinox, or
rather something later. It continues about twelve days or a fortnight,
and is extremely welcome to the natives of this country. This rainy
season is often delayed 'till the latter end of November, and sometimes
'till the month of December; in which case, the rest of the winter is
generally dry. The heavy rains in this country generally come with a
south-west wind, which was the creberque procellis Africus, the stormy
southwest, of the antients. It is here called Lebeche, a corruption of
Lybicus: it generally blows high for a day or two, and rolls the
Mediterranean before it in huge waves, that often enter the town of
Nice. It likewise drives before it all the clouds which had been formed
above the surface of the Mediterranean. These being expended in rain,
fair weather naturally ensues. For this reason, the Nissards observe le
lebeche racommode le tems, the Lebeche settles the weather. During the
rains of this season, however, the winds have been variable. From the
sixteenth of November, 'till the fourth of January, we have had two and
twenty days of heavy rain: a very extraordinary visitation in this
country: but the seasons seem to be more irregular than formerly, all
over Europe. In the month of July, the mercury in Fahrenheit's
thermometer, rose to eighty-four at Rome, the highest degree at which
it was ever known in that country; and the very next day, the Sabine
mountains were covered with snow. The same phaemomenon happened on the
eleventh of August, and the thirtieth of September. The consequence of
these sudden variations of weather, was this: putrid fevers were less
frequent than usual; but the sudden cheek of