y and according to the very Letter. For Rain may fall the
sixth or seventh Day, or the Wind may change the second or third.
Besides, a Man who would make use of these Observations in the Country,
must consider attentively the Situation of the Place where he lives,
the bearing of the Sea, Marshes, Ponds, Lakes, Woods, Mountains, Rocks,
_&c._ For without making proper Allowances for these, all such
Observations on the Weather will be apt to fail him.
XVI.
_If it return to the South within a Day or two without Rain, and turn
Northward with Rain, and return to the South, in one or two Days, as
before, two or three Times together after this Sort_, then it is
like to be in the South, or South West, two or three Months together,
_as it was in the North before_.
_The Winds will finish these Turns in a Fortnight._
THIS may appear a little perplexed to an ordinary Reader, but a little
Attention will make it very clear and plain; and whoever considers what
mighty Uses may be made of the Foresight of Weather for a Month or two,
will not think this Labour ill bestowed. I must confess I look upon
these three Rules in Relation to the Wind as the most useful in the
whole Collection. Especially to Farmers and Country People, to whom
they are of the greatest Consequence.
BUT it is a common Thing for such People to say, what Certainty is
there that these Rules will prove true, what Probability is there that
the Wind should continue so long in one Quarter, and then so long in
another, how shall we be satisfied that there is any truth in this; or,
if we cannot be satisfied as to the Truth of it, why should we depend
upon any such like Observations?
TO this I answer, that they may have reasonable Satisfaction given them
on this Head. Some of our great Naturalists, who had kept Journals of
the Weather for many Years, have found that the same Wind blows every
Year very near the same number of Days, and that there is a regular
Continuance of different Winds annually in every Country. For Instance,
At _Utrecht_ they blow thus,
The N. Wind 42 Days.
The N. W. 33
The W. 77
The S. W. 58
The South 33
The S. E. 26
The E. 53
The N. E. 43
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365
IT is a Thing plain to every Capacity, that a Journal or Diary of the
Winds may be kept any where, and if from such a Journal it appears that
a given Wind blows f
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