63. If the sea swell silently, and rises higher than ordinary within the harbour, or the tide come in sooner than it uses to do, it foretells wind.

64. Sound from the hills, and the murmur of woods growing louder, and a noise in open champion fields, portends wind. Also a prodigious murmuring of the element, without thunder, for the most part presages winds.

65. Leaves and straws playing on the ground, without any breath of wind that can be felt, and the down of plants flying about, feathers swimming and playing upon the water, signify that wind is near at hand.

66. Waterfowls flying at one another, and flying together in flocks, especially seamews and gulls, flying from the sea and lakes, and hastening to the banks and shores, especially if they make a noise and play upon dry land, they are prognostics of winds, especially if they do so in the morning.

67. But, contrariwise, seafowls going to the water, and beating with their wings, chattering and bathing themselves, especially the crow, are all presages of storms.

68. Duckers and ducks cleanse their feathers with their bills against wind; but geese with their importunate crying call for rain.

69. A hern flying high, so that it sometimes flies over a low cloud, signifies wind; but kites, when they fly high, foreshow fair weather.

70. Crows, as it were, barking after a sobbing manner, if they continue in it, do presage winds, but if they catchingly swallow up their voice again, or croak a long time together, it signifies that we shall have some showers.

71. A chattering owl was thought by the ancients to foretell change of weather; if it were fair, rain; if cloudy, fair weather. But with us the owl making a clear and free noise, for the most part signifies fair weather, especially in winter.

72. Birds perching in trees, if they fly to their nests, and give over feeding betimes, it presages tempest. But the hern standing, as it were, sad and melancholy upon the sand, or a crow walking up and down, do presage wind only.

73. Dolphins playing in a calm sea are thought to presage wind from that way they come; and if they play and throw up water when the sea is rough, they presage fair weather. And most kinds of fishes swimming on the top of the water, and sometimes leaping, do prognosticate wind.

74. Upon the approach of wind, swine will be so terrified and disturbed, and use such strange actions, that country people say that creature only can see the wind, and perceive the horridness of it.

75. A little before the wind spiders work and spin carefully, as if they prudently forestalled the time, knowing that in windy weather they cannot work.

76. Before rain, the sound of bells is heard further off; but before wind it is heard more unequally, drawing near and going further off, as it doth when the wind blows really.

77. Pliny affirms for a certain, that three-leaved grass creeps together, and raises its leaves against a storm.

78. He says likewise that vessels, which food is put into, will leave a kind of sweat in cupboards, which presage cruel storms.

Monition. Seeing rain and wind have almost a common matter, and seeing always before rain there is a certain condensation of the air, caused by the new air received into the old, as it appears by the sounding of the shores, and the high flight of herns, and other things; and seeing the wind likewise thickens (but afterward in rain the air is more drawn together, and in winds contrariwise it is enlarged), of necessity winds must have many prognostics common with the rain. Whereof advise with the prognostics of rain,

under their own title.

Imitations of Winds.

To the three and thirtieth article. Connexion.

If men could be persuaded not to fix their contemplations overmuch upon a propounded subject, and reject others, as it were, by the by; and that they would not subtilize about that subject in infinitum, and for the most part unprofitably, they would not be seized with such a stupor as they are; but transferring their thoughts, and discoursing, would find many things at a distance, which near at hand are hidden. So that as in the civil law, so we must likewise in the law of nature, we must carefully proceed to semblable things, and such as have a conformity between them.

1. Bellows with men are Æolus his bags, out of which one may take as much as he needeth. And likewise spaces between, and openings of hills, and crooks of buildings, are but, as it were, large bellows. Bellows are most useful either to kindle fire or for musical organs. The manner of

the working of bellows is by sucking in of the air, to shun vacuity (as they say), and to send it out by compression.

2. We also use hand fans to make a wind, and to cool, only by driving forward of the air softly.

3. The cooling of summer rooms we spake of in answer to the ninth article. There may other more curious means be found, especially if the air be drawn in somewhere after the manner of bellows, and let out at another place; but those which are now in use have relation only to mere compression...

4. The breath in man's microcosmos, and in other animals, do very well agree with the winds in the greater world; for they are engendered by humours, and alter with moisture as wind and rain doth, and are dispersed and blow freer by a greater heat. And from them that observation is to be transferred to the winds, namely, that breaths are engendered of matter that yields a tenacious vapour, not easy to be dissolved; as beans, pulse, and fruits; which is so likewise in greater winds.

5. In the distilling of vitriol and other minerals which are most windy, they must have great and large receptacles, otherwise they will break.

6. Wind composed of nitre and gunpowder, breaking out and swelling, the flame doth not only imitate but also exceed winds, which blow abroad in the world, unless they be such as are made by thunder.

7. But the forces of it are pressed in, as in human engines, as guns, mines, and powder houses set on fire. But it hath not yet been tried whether in open air, a great heap of gunpowder set on fire would raise a wind for certain hours, by the commotion of the air.

8. There lies hidden a flatuous and expansive spirit in quicksilver, so that it doth (in some men's opinions) imitate gunpowder, and a little of it mixed with gunpowder will make the powder stronger. Likewise the chymists speak the same of gold, that being prepared some way, it will break out dangerously like to thunder; but these things I never tried.

A greater Observation.

The motions of winds is for most things seen as it were in a lookingglass, in the motion of waters.

Great winds are inundations of the air, as we see inundations of waters both through the augmentation of the quantity. As waters either descend from above, or spring

out of the earth, so some winds are cast down, and some rise up. As sometimes in rivers there are contrary motions, one of the flowing of the sea, the other of the current of the river, yet both become one motion, by the prevailing of the flood; so when contrary winds blow the greater subdues the lesser. As in the currents of the sea, and of some rivers, it sometimes falls out, that the waves above go contrary to the waves below; so in the air, when contrary winds blow together, one flies over the other. As there are cataracts of rain within a narrow space, so there are whirlwinds. As waters, however they go forward, yet if they be troubled, swell up into waves, sometimes ascending, grow up into heaps, sometimes descending, are as it were furrowed; so the winds do the same, but only want the motion of gravity. There are also other similitudes which may be observed and gathered out of those things which have already been inquired about.

Moveable Rules concerning Winds.

Connexion.

Rules are either particular or general, both with us are moveable; for as yet we have not affirmed any thing positively. Particular rules may be taken and gathered almost out of every article. We will cull out some general ones, and those but a few, and add thereunto.

1. Wind is no other thing but moved air; but the air itself moved either by a simple impulsion, or by commixion of vapours.

2. Winds by a simple impulsion are caused four ways, either by the natural motion of the air, or by expansion of the air in the sun's ways; or by reception of air thorow a sudden cold, or by the compression of the air by external bodies.

There may be also a fifth way, by the agitation and concussion of the air by stars. But let these things be awhile silent, or be given ear unto with a sparing belief.

3. Of winds which are made by immixion of vapours, the chief cause is the overburthening of the air, by air newly made out of vapours, whereby the mass of the air grows bigger, and seeks new room.

4. A small quantity of air added causeth a great tumour of the air round about it, so that new air out of the resolution of vapours doth confer more to motion than to matter. But the great body of wind consists in the former air, neither doth the new air drive the old air before it, as if

they were several bodies, but being both commixed, they desire larger room.

5. When any other beginning of motion concurs, besides the overburthening of the air, it is an accessory which strengtheneth and increaseth that principal, which is the reason that great and violent winds do seldom rise, by the simple overburthening of the air.

6. Four things are accessory to the overburthening of the air. The breathing out of subterraneal places: the casting down out of (as it is called) the middle region of the air; dissipation made out of a cloud, and the mobility and acrimony of the exhalation itself.

7. The motion of the wind is for the most part lateral; but that which is made by mere overburthening is so from the beginning, that which is made by the expiration of the earth, or repercussion from above, a little while after, unless the eruption, or precipitation, or reverberation, be exceeding violent.

8. Air will endure some compression before it be overburthened, and begins to thrust away the adjoining air, by reason whereof all winds are a little thicker than quiet and calm air.

9. Winds are allayed five ways, either by the conjunction of vapours, or by their sublimation, or by transporting them, or by their being spent.

10. Vapours are conjoined, and so the air itself becomes water, four ways, either by abundance aggravating, or by colds condensing, or by contrary winds compelling, or by obstacles reverberating.

11. Both vapours and exhalations, but wind very frequently from vapours. But there is this difference, that winds which are made of vapours do more easily incorporate themselves into pure air, are sooner allayed, and are not so obstinate as those winds which are engendered of exhalations.

12. The manner and several conditions of heat have no less power in the generation of winds, than the abundance or conditions of the matter.

13. The heat of the sun ought to be so proportioned in the generation of winds, that it may raise them, but not in such abundance as that they gather into rain, nor in so small a quantity, that they may be quite shaken off and dispersed.

14. Winds blow from their nurseries, and the nurseries being disposed several ways, divers winds for the most part