11. Inquire sparingly concerning astrological considerations of winds, neither care thou for the over-curious schemes of the heaven, only do not neglect the more manifest observations of winds rising, about the rising of some stars, or about the eclipses of the luminaries, or conjunctions of planets; nor much less on those which depend on the courses of the sun and moon.

12. What meteors of several sorts do contribute or make for winds, what the earthquakes, what rain, what the skirmishing of winds, one with another? for these things are linked together, and one draws on the other.

13. What the diversity of vapours and exhalations contributes towards the winds? and which of them do most engender winds? and how far the nature of winds doth follow these its materials?

14. What those things which are here upon the earth, or are there done do contribute towards the winds; what the hills and the dissolutions of snow upon them; what those masses of ice which swim upon the sea, and are carried to some place; what the differences of soil and land; (so it be of some large extent;) what ponds, sands, woods, and champion ground; what those things which we men do here, as burning of heath, and the like, doth contribute to the manuring of land, the firing of towns in time of war, the drying up of ponds and lakes; the continual shooting off of guns, the ringing of many bells together in great cities, and the like? These things and acts of ours are but as small straws, yet something they may do.

15. Inquire concerning all manner of raisings, or allaying of winds, but be sparing in fabulous and superstitious causes.

From those things which make for the winds, let the inquisition proceed to inquire of the bounds of the winds, of their height, extension, and continuance.

The bounds of winds.

16. Inquire carefully of the height or elevation of winds, and whether there be any tops of mountains to which the winds do not reach; or whether clouds may be seen sometimes to stand still, and not move, when the winds at the same time blow strongly upon the earth.

17. Inquire diligently of the spaces or rooms which the winds take up at once, and within what lounds they blew. As, for example, if the

18. Inquire for how long a time, very much, ordinary, or little time, winds use to continue, and then slack, and, as it were, expire and die. Likewise, how the rising and beginning of winds useth to be; what their languishing or cessation is, whether suddenly, or by degrees, or how?

From the bounds of the winds let your inquisition pass over to the succession of winds, either amongst themselves, or in respect of rain and showers; for when they lead their rings, it were pretty to know the order of their dancing.

Successions of winds.

19. Whether there be any more certain rule or observation concerning the successions of winds one to another, or whether it have any relation to the motion of the sun, or otherwise; if it have any, what manner of one it is?

20. Inquire concerning the succession and the alteration, or taking turns of the winds and rain, seeing it is ordinarily and often seen, that rain lays the wind, and the wind doth disperse the rain.

21. Whether, after a certain term and period of years, the succession of winds begin anew; and if it be so, what that period is, and how long?

From the succession of the winds, let the inquisition pass to their motions; and the motions of the winds are comprehended in seven inquisitions; whereof three are contained in the former articles, four remain as yet untouched. For, we have inquired of the motion of winds divided into the several regions of the heaven; also, of the motion upon three lines, upward, downward, and laterally. Likewise, of the accidental motion of compressions or restraints. There remain the fourth, of progressions or going forward; the fifth, of undulation, or waving; the sixth, of conflict or skirmish; the seventh, in human instruments and engines.

Divers motions of the winds.

22. Seeing progression is always from some certain place or bound, inquire diligently, or as well as thou canst, concerning the place of the first beginning, and, as it were, the spring of any wind. For winds seem to be like unto fame, for, though they make a noise and run up and down, yet they hide their heads amongst the clouds; so is their progress; as, for example, if the vehement northern wind which blew at York such a day, do blow at London two days after.

23. Omit not the inquisition of undulation of

cardinal, those which blow in the half-wards of those; and median winds, those which blow between these half-wards: likewise of those which blow betwixt these half-wards; let those be called major medians which blow in a quadrant or fourth part of these divisions: the lesser medians are all the rest. Now the particular division is that which follows:

Cardinal. North.

North and by east.

Med. Maj. North-north-east, or aquilo.
North-east, and by north, or meses.

Semicard. North-east.

North-east and by east.

Med. Maj. East-north-east, or cœcias. East and by north.

Cardinal. East, or subsolanus.

East by south.

Med. Maj. East-south-east,or vulturnus.

South-east and by east.

Semicard. South-east.

South-east and by south.

Med. Maj. South-south-east, or phænicias. South and by east.

Cardinal. South.

South and by west.

Med. Maj. South-south-west, or libonotus. South-west and by south.

Semicard. South-west, or libs.

South-west and by west.

Med. Maj. West-south-west, or africus.

West and by south.

Cardinal. West, or favonius.

West and by north.

Med. Maj. West-north-west, or corus. North-west and by west.

Semicard. North-west.

North-west and by north, or thrascias. Med. Maj. North-north-west, or circius. North and by west.

There are also other names of winds. Apeliotes, the east wind, argestes, the south-west, olympias, the north-west, scyron, the south-east, hellespontius, the east-north-east, for these we care not. Let it suffice that we have given constant and fixed names of winds, according to the order and disposition of the regions of the heavens: we do not set much by the comments of authors, since the authors themselves have little in them.

Free Winds.

To the sixth article.

1. There is not a region of the heaven from whence the winds doth not blow. Yea, if you divide the heaven into as many regions as there be degrees in the horizon, you shall find winds sometimes blowing from every one of them.

2. There are some whole countries where it never rains, or, at least, very seldom; but there is no country where the wind doth not blow, and that frequently.

General Winds.

To the second article.

1. Concerning general winds, experiments are plain; and it is no marvel, seeing that (especially VOL. III.-56

within the tropics) we may find places condemned among the ancients.

It is certain, that to those who sail between the tropics in a free and open sea, there blows a constant and settled wind (which the seamen call a breeze) from east to west. This wind is not of so little force, but that, partly by its own blowing, and partly by its guiding the current of the sea, it hindereth seamen froin coming back again the same way they went to Peru.

2. In our seas in Europe, when it is fair dry weather, and no particular winds stirring, there blows a soft kind of gale from the east, which followeth the sun.

3. Our common observations do admit that the higher clouds are for the most part carried from east to west; and that it is so likewise when here below upon the earth, either there is a great calm, or a contrary wind; and if they do not so always, it is because sometimes particular winds blow aloft which overwhelm this general wind.

A Caution. If there be any such general wind, in order to the motion of the heaven, it is not so firm nor strong but that it gives way to particular winds. But it appears most plainly amongst the tropics, by reason of the larger circles which it makes. And, likewise, it is so when it blows on high, for the same cause, and by reason of its free course. Wherefore, if you will take it without the tropics, and near the earth, (where it blows most gently and slowly,) make trial of it in an open and free air, in an extreme calm, and in high places, and in a body which is very movable, and in the afternoon, for at that time the particular eastern wind blows more sparingly.

Injunction. Observe diligently the vanes and weathercocks upon the tops and towers of churches, whether, in extreme calms, they stand continually towards the west or not.

An indirect experiment.

4. It is certain, that here with us in Europe the eastern wind is drying and sharp; the west wind, contrariwise, moist and nourishing. May not this be by reason that (it being granted that the air moves from east to west) it must of necessity be that the east wind, whose blast goeth the same way, must needs disperse and attenuate the air, whereby the air is made biting and dry; but the western wind, which blows the contrary way, turns the airs back upon itself, and thickens it, whereby it becomes more dull, and, at length, moist.

An indirect experiment.

5. Consider the inquisition of the motion and flowing of waters, whether they move from east to west; for, if the two extremes, heaven and waters, delight in this motion, the air which is in the midst will go near to participate of the same.

Caution. We call the two last experiments indirect, because they do directly show the thing which we aim at but by consequence, which we also gladly admit of when we want direct experi

ments.

Injunction. That the breeze blows plentifully between the tropics, is most certain; the cause is very ambiguous. The cause may be, because the air moves according to the heaven; but without the tropics almost imperceivably, by reason of the smaller circles which it makes; within the tropics manifestly, because it makes bigger circles. Another cause may be, because all kind of heat dilates and extends the air, and doth not suffer it to be contained in its former place; and by the dilatation of the air, there must needs be an impulsion of the contiguous air which produceth this breeze as the sun goes forward; and that is more evident within the tropics, where the sun is more scorching; without it, is hardly perceived. And this seems to be an instance of the cross, or a decisory instance. To clear this doubt you may inquire, whether the breeze blow in the night or no; for the wheeling of the air continues also in the night, but the heat of the sun does not. 6. But it is most certain that the breeze doth not blow in the night, but in the morning, and when the morning is pretty well spent; yet that instance doth not determine the question, whether the nightly condensation of the air (especially in those countries where the days and nights are not more equal in their length than they are differing in their heat and cold) may dull and confound that natural motion of the air, which is but weak. If the air participates of the motion of the heaven, it does not only follow that the east wind concurs with the motion of the air, and the west wind strives against it; but also that the north wind blows, as it were, from above, and the south wind as from below here in our hemisphere, where the antarctic pole is under ground, and the arctic pole is elevated! which hath likewise been observed by the ancients, though staggeringly and obscurely but it agrees very well with our modern experience, because the breeze (which may be a motion of the air) is not a full east, but a north-east wind.

Stayed or Certain Winds.

To the third article. Connexion.

As, in the inquisition of general winds, men have suffered and been in darkness, so they have been troubled with a vertigo or giddiness concerning stayed and certain winds. Of the former, they say nothing; of the latter, they talk up and down at random. This is the more pardonable, the thing being various; for these stayed winds do change and alter according to the places where they be the same do not blow in Egypt, Greece, and Italv.

1. That there are stayed winds in some places, the very name that is given them doth declare it, as the other name of etesiaes means anniversary or yearly winds.

2. The ancients attributed the cause of the overflowing of Nilus to the blowing of the etesian (that is to say, northern) winds at that time of the year, which did hinder the river's running into the sea, and turned the stream of it back.

3. There are currents in the sea which can neither be attributed to the natural motion of the ocean, nor to the running down from higher places, nor the straitness of the opposite shores, nor to promontories running out into the sea, but are merely guided and governed by these stayed winds.

4. Those who will not have Columbus to have conceived such a strong opinion concerning the West Indies by the relation of a Spanish pilot, and much less believe that he might gather it out of some obscure footsteps of the ancients, have this refuge; that he might conjecture there was some continent in the west by the certain and stayed winds which blew from them towards the shores of Lusitania or Portugal. A doubtful, and not very probable thing, seeing that the voyage of winds will hardly reach so large a distance. In the mean time there is great honour due to this inquisition, if the finding of this new world be due to one of those axioms or observations, whereof it comprehends many.

5. Wheresoever are high and snowy mountains, from thence blow stayed winds, until that time as the snow be melted away.

6. I believe also that from great pools which are full of water in the winter, there blow stayed winds in those seasons, when as they begin to dry up with the heat of the sun. But of this I have no certainty.

7. Wheresoever vapours are engendered in abundance, and that at certain times, be sure that stayed winds will blow there at the same times.

8. If stayed and certain winds blow anywhere, and the cause cannot be found near at hand, assure yourself that those certain winds are strangers, and come from far.

9. It hath been observed, that stayed winds do not blow in the night-time, but do rise about three hours after sunrising. Surely such winds are tired, as it were, with a long journey, that they can scarcely break through the thickness of the night air, but being stirred up again by the rising of the sun, they go forward by little and little.

10. All stayed winds (unless they blow from some neighbouring places) are weak, and yield unto sudden winds.

11. There are many stayed winds which are not perceivable, and which we do not observe, by reason of their weakness, whereby they are over

Injunction. Human diligence hath almost ceased and stood still in the observation of attending winds in particular places, which, notwithstanding, should not have been, that observation being profitable for many things. I remember, I asked a certain merchant, (a wise and discreet man,) who had made a plantation in Greenland, and had wintered there, why that country was so extreme cold, seeing it stood in a reasonable temperate climate. He said, it was not so great as it was reported; but that the cause was twofold: One was, that the masses and heaps of ice which came out of the Scythian sea were carried thither. The other (which he also thought to be the better reason) was because the west wind there blows many parts of the year, more than the east wind; as also (said he) it doth with us; but there it

from the sea, and warmish. And (said he) if the east wind should blow here in England so often and constantly as the west wind does there, we should have far colder weather, even equal to that as is there.

Customary or Attending Winds.

Of the fourth and fifth articles. Connexion.

The word of attending wind is ours, and we thought good to give it, that the observation concerning them be not lost, nor confounded. The meaning is this, divide the year if you please (in what country soever you be) into three, four, or five parts, and if any one certain wind blow, then two, three, or four of those parts, and a contrary wind but one; we call that wind which blows most frequently the customary, or attending wind of that country, and likewise of the times.

1. The south and north winds are attendants of the world, for they, with those which are within their sections or divisions, blow oftener over all the world, than either the east or the west.

2. All the free winds (not the customary) are more attendant in the winter than in the summer; but most of all in the autumn and spring.

3. All free winds are attendants rather in the countries without the tropics, and about the polar circles, than within: for in frozen and in torrid countries, for the most part they blow more sparingly, in the middle regions they are more frequent.

4. Also all free winds, especially the strongest and most forcible of them, do blow oftener and more strongly, morning and evening, than at noon and night.

5. Free winds blow frequently in hollow places, and where there be caves, than in solid and firm ground.

7. The south wind is attendant on the night; for it rises and blows more strongly in the night, and the north wind in the daytime.

8. But there are many and great differences between winds which are attendant on the sea, and those which are attendant upon the land. That is one of the chief which gave Columbus occasion to find out the new world; namely, that sea winds are not stayed, but land winds are: for the sea abounding in vapours, which are indifferently everywhere, winds are also engendered indifferently everywhere, and with great inconstancy are carried here and there, having no certain beginnings nor sources. But the earth is much unlike for the begetting of winds: some places are more efficacious to engender and increase winds, some less: wherefore they stand most from that part where they have their nourishment, and take their rise from thence.

9. Acosta is unconstant in his own position. He saith that at Peru, and the sea coasts of the south sea, south winds do blow almost the whole year: and he saith in another place, that upon those coasts sea winds do blow chiefliest. But the south wind to them is a land wind, as likewise the north and east wind also, and the west wind is their only sea wind. We must take that which he sets down more certainly; namely, that the south wind is an attending and familiar wind of those countries: unless, peradventure, in the name of the south sea he hath corrupted his meaning, or his speech, meaning the west by the south, which blows from the south sea. But the sea which they call the south sea is not properly the south