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 wind 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 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 from 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 moveable, and in the afternoon, for at that time the particular eastern wind blows more sparingly.

Injunction. Observe diligently the veins 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 experiments.

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 dilation 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 northeast 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 Italy.

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 blows 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 any where, 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 overthrown by the free winds. Wherefore in the winter they are hardly taken notice of, when the free winds wander most: but are more observable in the summer, when those wandering winds grow weak.

12. In Europe these are the chief stayed winds, north winds from the solstice, and they are both forerunners and followers of the dogstar. West winds from the equinoctial in autumn, east winds from the spring equinoctial; as for the winter solstice, there is little heed to be taken of it, by reason of the varieties.

13. The winds called ornithii, or bird winds, had that name given them because they bring birds out of cold regions beyond the sea, into warm climates; and they belong not to stayed winds, because they for the most part keep no punctual time: and the birds they for the convenience of them, whether they come sooner or later: and many times when they have begun to blow a little, and turn, the birds being forsaken by it, are drowned in the sea, and sometimes fall into ships.

14. The returns of these certain or stayed winds are not so precise at a day or an hour, as the flowing of the sea is. Some authors do set down a day, but it is rather by conjecture than any constant observation.

Customary or Attending Winds.

Of the fourth and fifth articles. Connexion.

The word of attending winds 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 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.

Injunction. Human diligence hath almost ceased and stood still in the observation of attending winds in parti