during this storm were numerous and dread- Frozen. 10. At Portland, in Maine, diftant 603 maine. by young Mr. Vaughan, who was travelling travelling. on the morning of the 22d. At 8 A. M. the wind blew violently. 11. The storm began ftill later at Hallo- Kennebeck. well on the Kennebeck River. This place is 683 miles from Washington. There the fun rofe clear on the morning of the 22d. The air became cloudy in about a quarter of an hour. The fnow began about eleven, and the ftorm had become furious within two hours after. Profeffor Waterhouse and Benjamin meteorologic Vaughan, Efq. have particularly attended to thefe curious meteorological facts. al? 12. At Poughkeepfie, 82 miles N. of NewYork, and fituated beyond the firft range of Poughkeepsie. mountains, the ftorm began about 4 o'clock on the morning of the 22d. And at Albany, 165 miles north of New-York, it did not begin until a little before day break on the morning of the 22d. 13. At Providence (R. I.) Dr. Wheaton obferved the evening of the 21ft. to be clear evening. and pleasant. The watchmen informed him "the weather changed before 12 o'olock, and continued cloudy, with variable winds, until the violence of the ftorm began, which was at half past three on the morning of the 22d." -Providence is 43 miles from Washington. 14. Accounts from Charleston (S. C.) ftate Charleton. that it Began there on the 21ft. between two and three o'clock in the afternoon.-The diftance of Charleston from Washington is 550 Ilands. proceeded. difference. progrefs? miles, By the newspapers it appears to have been felt in the Bahama Iflands. 15. It will be found ox calculation, that between Charleston and Cape-Ann, along the coaft, this ftormy movement proceeded to windward at the rate of nearly one hundred miles an hour; for, as it began at Charleston, fay at three o'clock, at new-York at eleven, & off Cape-Ann at two the next morning, there is a difference of eight hours between Charlefton and NewYork, and of three hours between the latter city and Salem, making in the whole eleven hours. 16. Now, computing the distance from Carlef ton to N. York at about 800 miles, & from N. York to Cape-Ann more than 250, there will be a fea coft of almoft 1100 miles fpept over by this form in fomewhat more than eleven hours. But this computation applies only to the fea-coaft: for if we take any given point, as the city of New-York for example, and inftead of N. E. reckon due N. it will be found that the progrefs is confiderably flower: for it took all the time between eleven at night and day-break next morning to reach Albany, only 165 miles diftant in that direction. 17. Now, thefe remarks explain fomé meteorological facts, which though of common paradoxical? obfervation, have hitherto feemed apradoxical unaccountable: for mariners know, that to form a good judgment of wind and weather, they must keep a look-out for clouds and changes of atmosphere to leeward. In New-York, accompanies. the rain or fnow which accompanies a N. E. ftorm can be feen by labourers along the docks and wharves, in the S. W. at Staten-Ifland, ten or eleven miles diftant, for fome time before it begins in the city, fo as frequently to break off work, and put away their tools. wharves. 18.And it is confirmed,by long obfervation among the farmers in that vicinity, that fnow. Vicinity? banks, as they term them, are to be feen in the S. W. many hours before the atmosphere where the obfervers are, is clouded in the fmallest degree, or any current of air percepti- perceptibles ble. They remark, further, that a judgment can be formed of the weather by noting whether the gathered clouds lowering in the diftant horizon are vifible to the northward or fouthward of the fetting fun. If at funfet they are to the S. of the fun, they predict a north-eaft ftorm, with faow; if to the N. a fleet. fouth-eaft form, with fleet or rain. Obfervations and reflections on forms, and fome other Phenomena of the atmosphere. In a Letter from Profeffor Waterhoufe, to Dr. Mitchill, dated Cambridge, (Maffachusetts) March 20, 1802. "DEAR SIR, "Your Our letter of the 8th inftant, request- Precife. chimnies. the late wide-fpreading ftorm commenced at this place, came to my hands evening before laft. I haften to gratify you as far as I am able. 2. "Sunday, the 21 ft. of February, the day preceding the ftorm here, was remarkably calm and pleafant. The fmoke afcended from thermometer? the chimnies in a straight column. The thermometer at noon was 47. Neither hygrome- hygrometer? ter nor barometer indicated, at that period, any difpofition of change in the atmosphere. barometer? 3. As late as half past ten at night, the fky was clear & ftar-light. At about two hours and a half after this, viz. one o'clock in the morning of the 22d the fnow-ftorm began. My information comes from an intelligent intelligent? market-man who set out from his own houfe for Cambridge at midnight. Excepting for a few Wednesday. Halifax? Jamaica. few hours on wednesday, 24th, we faw not the fun for nine days. It was the longest if not fevereft fnow-florm 1 ever knew. 4. "I can readily conceive feveral good purposes may be answered by this inquiry, I have therefore written to Kennebec and to Halifax, and requested my correfpondent at the laft place to extend his enquires to Newfoundland. I hope you will extend yours to Penjacola and even to Jamaica. The feverity of the ftorm was from north-north-caft; that is, north, two points to the east, being, you know, what the ancients termed aquilo. 5. Thefe obfervations will probably ftrengthen the opinion prevalent in this quarbemifphere? ter, that all our fevere north caft ftorms begin elear. Centuries? afcent. defcent. fragments. first, in point of time, in the fouth-west. Franklin was firft led to notice this, on being prevented by a ftormy fky from obferving an eclipfe of the moon at Philadelphia, when at Bofton, 400 miles north-east of that city, the hemifphere was fufficiently clear for that purpofe. 6." It has always impreffed me with fomething bordering on wonder, that, during the fix-and-twenty centuries wherein the memory and learning of mankind have been excrcised, there has not been found one fecretary of nature fufficiently inftructed to give us a complete hiftory of the afcent of vapeurs from the ocean, their fufpenfion in the air, the formation of clouds, of fnow, and of the defcent of rain, with an entire and connected chain of caufes. 7. Des Cartes, Nieuwentyt, Dr. Halley, Hunter, and fome few others, have `amufed the world with their theories on this fubject; but which of them is unincumbered with dif ficulties? What facts we have in this fubphenomena? lime part of nature are mere fragments widely fcattered. The phenomena in thefe lofty regions of the air have been rather terrific. Purblind? objects to purblind fuperftition, than inftructive appearances to calm philofophy. 8. "The never-cealing circulation of water between the ocean and the dry ground ocean. has been contemplated, from the earliest ages, with grateful admiration; but not being an object of fight, has been ranked among the inexplicable works of Deity. The clouds dif- earliest. penfing refreshing fhowers of rain on the dry and thirty ground; the flow of rivers, with their long train of beneficial confequences, could hardly efcape the notice of any thinking being in every age of the world. We ac- difpenfing? cordingly find the fupply of water frequently mentioned in the OLDEST BOOK we have, among the moft wonderful, as well as valuable of Heaven's bleflings. 9." Seeing the earth annually covered with vegetables. a rich and beautiful carpet of vegetables, and thefe aftonishingly variegated, and gradually developing from feed time to harvest time, developing? fun, and the moisture from the clouds; and ancient. ocean and the mountains thro the inftrumen- recognize? tality of the atmorphere, and by the medium of rivers to the ocean again. 10,But the philofophy or explanation of this vivifying phenomenon is fpoken of as infcruta- vivifying? ble and paft finding out. They did then, as we do now,carry our inveftigations as high as we can, as in the cafe of gravitation, and be- infcrutable ? yond that principle fay, with them, it is the hand of God;' an expreffion denoting the last term of our analytical refults. Unable to inveftigate the effence of light and of fire,the De- inexplicable? ity was called by the name of these inexplicable agents. "In |