canonized, considering it disgraceful for the saint to lie in a public cemetery, resolved to remove the body into the choir, which was to have been done with solemn procession on the 15th of July. It rained, however, so violently for forty days together at this season, that the design was abandoned. "Now, without entering into the case of the bishop," says Mr. Howard, in his work on the Climate of London," who was probably a man of sense, and wished to set the example of a more wholesome, as well as a more humble, mode of resigning the perishable clay to the destructive elements, I may observe, that the fact of the hindrance of the ceremony by the cause related is sufficiently authenticated by tradition; and the tradition is so far valuable, as it proves that the summers in this southern part of our island, were subject, a thousand years ago, to occasional heavy rains, in the same way as at present." Mr. Howard has shown, by a table, that the notion commonly entertained on this subject, if put strictly to the test of experience, at any one station, in this part of the island, will be found fallacious; he, however, very justly observes, that "the opinion of the people on subjects connected with Natural History is commonly founded, in some degree, on fact or experience;" and to do justice to the popular observation in question, he states that," in a majority of our summers, a, showery period, which, with some latitude as to time and local circumstances, may be admitted to constitute daily rain for forty days, does come on about the time indicated by this tradition; not that any long space before is often so dry as to mark distinctly its commencement." NOTE 8. p. 110. This fact may be demonstrated by converting the triangle into a parallelogram, of which one of the sides of the triangle will become its diagonal; the other two sides will, of course, represent two forces equivalent to such diagonal, which, acting in opposition to it, must produce a balance. NOTE 9. p. 122. The sea and land breezes which occur in the islands of the torrid zone, very strikingly illustrate the position laid down in the text, and afford a good explanation of the manner in which winds may be occasioned by a change of temperature in the air. In these, during the hottest part of the day, the wind sets in from all quarters, and appears to be blowing towards the centre of the island, while in the night it changes its direction, and blows from the centre of the land towards the sea; for since the sun's rays produce much more heat by their reflection from land than they do from water, that portion of air which is over the land will soon become heated, and will ascend; a rarefaction and diminution of the quantity of air over the central part of the land will be thus occasioned, which must be supplied from the sides; but, as the land cools again during the night, that portion of air which had been previously heaped up will begin to de scend, and by spreading and equalizing itself will produce a breeze blowing from the centre. The trade-winds, so called from the advantage which their certainty affords to trading vessels, are another example of the same kind; they are generally stated to blow from east to west over the equator, and are occasioned by the rarefaction of the air by the sun's heat, and the motion of the earth from west to east. While writing the present note, we have seen an essay upon the subject by Captain Basil Hall, published in an appendix to Mr. Daniel's admirable work on Meteorology; the perusal of this paper has induced us to cancel what we had written, and to refer the reader to the essay itself; for it is quite impossible to do justice to the views it entertains, in the limited space necessarily prescribed to us in this note. On the coast of Guinea, the wind always sets in upon the land, blowing westerly instead of easterly; this exception arises from the deserts of Africa, which lie near the equator, and being a very sandy soil reflect a great degree of heat into the air above them, which being thus rendered lighter than that which is over the sea, the wind continually rushes in upon the land to restore the equilibrium. Among the irregular winds, or those which are not constant, but accidental, may be noticed the whirlwind, the harmattan, and the sirocco. The first of these is occasioned by the meeting of two or more currents of wind from opposite directions, and which can only be occasioned by some temporary but violent disturbance of equilibrium. The harmattan is met with on the western coast of Africa, and is generally attended by great heat and fog; it appears to be occasioned by a conflict between the heated sands of Africa, and the regular direction of the trade-winds over that continent, and by disturbing their progress, it is frequently the forerunner of a hurricane in the West Indies. The sirocco occurs in Egypt, the Mediterranean, and in Greece, and is chiefly characterised by its unhealthy qualities. The air, by passing over the heated sands of Egypt becomes so dried and rarefied as to be scarcely fit for respiration, and being so prepared, it absorbs so much humidity on passing the Mediterranean as to form a suffocating and oppressive kind of fog. room, Mr. Daniel observes, that the currents of a heated in some measure, exemplify the great currents of the atmosphere. If the door be opened, the flame of a candle held to the upper part will show, by its inclination, a current flowing outwards; but, if held near the floor, it will be directed inwards. If the door be closed suddenly from without, it moves with the in-coming current, and against the out-going, and a condensation of air takes place in the room, which is proved by the rattling of the windows, and the bursting open of any other door in the room, if slightly closed. If the door close from within, it moves against the in-coming current, and with the out-going, and a rarefaction of the air in the room takes place, which is evidenced by the rattling of the windows, and the bursting open of another door in the contrary direction. NOTE 10. p. 30 We are reminded, upon this occasion, of part of a stanza in the well-known ballad of Chevy Chace, where an English archer aimed his arrow at Sir Hugh Montgomery: "The grey goose wing that was thereon, In his hearte's blood was wett." The more ancient ballad, however, reads swane-feathers. In the "Geste of Robyn Hode," among Mr. Garrick's old plays, in the Museum, the arrows of the outlaw and his companions are particularly described: "With them they had an hundred bowes, The strings were well ydight; An hundred shefe of arrows good, With hedes burnish'd full bryght; And every arrowe an ell longe, With peacocke well ydight, And rocked they were with white silk, It was a semely sight.” And Chaucer, in the description of the squyer's yeoma says: "And he was clad in cote and hode of greene; |