The works of Francis Bacon, lord chancellor of England.

452 NATURAL HISTORY OF WINDS.
against themselves; or by extreme colds, where- part of the water, (which may be easily perceived
by they are condensed and thickened. by the crisping of it,) when there is a calm, as
33. Smaller and lighter winds do commonly smooth as glass, everywhere else.
rise in the morning, and go down with the sun, 9. Small whirlwinds (as we saidl before) will
the condensation of the night air being sufficient sometimes play before men as they are riding,
to receive them; for air will endure some kind almost like wind out of a pair of bellows. So
of compression without stirring or tumult. much of the latitude; now we must see concern34. It is thought that the sound of -bells will ing the lastingness.
disperse lightning and thunder: in winds it hath 10. The vehement winds will last longer at
not been observed. sea, by reason of the sufficient quantity of vapours;
Monition. Take advice from the place in prog- at land they will hardly last above a day and
nostics of winds; for there is some connexion of a half.
causes and signs. 11. Very soft winds will not blow constant35. Pliny relates, that the vehemence of a ly, neither at sea, nor upon the land, above
whirlwind may be allayed by sprinkling of vine- three days.
gar in the encounter of it. 12. The south wind is not only more lasting
than the west, (which we set down in another
The Bounzds of'Yissds. place,) but likewise what wind soever it be that
To the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth articles. begins to blow in the morning, useth to be more
1. It is reported of Mount Athos, and likewise durable and lasting than that which begins to
of Olympus, that the priests would write in the blow at night.
ashes of the sacrifices which lay upon the altars, 13. It is certain that winds do rise, and inbuilt on the tops of those hills, and when they crease by degrees, (unless they be mere storms,)
returned the year following, (for the offerings but they allay sooner, sometimes as it were in an
were annual,) they found the same letters undis- instant.
turbed and uncancelled, though those altars stood
Succession of W1indcss.
not in any temple, but in the open air. Whereby
it was manifest, that in such a height there had To the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first articles.
neither fallen rain nor wind blown. 1. If the wind doth change according to the
2. They say that on the top of the Peak of motion of the sun, that is, from east to south,
Teneriffe, and on the Andes, betwixt Peru and from south to west, from west to north, from the
Chili, snow lieth upon the borders and sides of north to the east, it doth not return often, or if it
the hills, but that on the tops of them there is doth, it doth it but for a short time. But if it go
nothing but a quiet and still air, hardly breathe- contrary to the motion of the sun, that is, front
able by reason of its tenuity, which, also, with a the east to the north, from the north to the west,
kind of acrimony, pricks the eyes and orifice of from the west to the south, and from the south to
the stomach, begetting in some a desire to vomit, the east, for the most part it is restored to its first
and in others a flushing and redness. quarter, at least before it hath gone round its
3. Vapoury winds seem not in any great height, whole compass and circuit.
though it be probable that some of them ascend 2. If rain begins first, and the wind begins to
higher than most clouds. Hitherto of the height; blow afterwards, that wind will outlast the rain;
now we must consider of the latitude. but if the wind blow first, and then is allayed by
4. It is certain that those spaces which winds the rain, the wind for the most part will not rise
take up are very various, sometimes they are very again; and if it does, there ensues a new rain.
large, sometimes little and narrow: winds have 3. If winds do blow variously for a few hours,
been known to have taken up a hundred miles' and as it were to make a trial, and afterward begin
space with a few hours' difference. to blow constantly, that wind shall continue for
5. Spacious winds (if they be of the free kind) many days.
are, for the most part, vehement, and not soft, and 4. If the south wind begin to blow two or three
more lasting; for they will last almost four-and- days, sometimes the north wind will blow pretwenty hours. They are likewise not so much in- sently after it. But if the north wind blows as
clined to rain. Strait or narrow winds, contrari- many days, the south wind will not blow, until
wise, are either soft or stormy, and always short. the wind have blown a little from the east.
6. Fixed and stayed winds are itinerary or 5. When the year is declining and winter begins
travelling, and take up very large spaces. after autumn is past, if the south wind blows in
7. Stormy winds do not extend themselves into the beginning of winter, and after it comes the
any large spaces, though they always go beyond north wind, it will be a frosty winter; but if the
the bounds of the storm itself. north wind blow in the beginning of winter, and
8. Sea winds always blow within narrower the south wind come after, it will be a mild and
spaces than earth winds, as may sometimes be warm winter.
seen at sea, namely, a pretty fresh gale in some 6. Pliny quotes Eudoxus, to show that the order