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Show [ :t66 ) -Hence plafiic Nature, as Obrvion whelms Her fading fonns, repeoples all her realms ; Soft Joys difport on purple plu1nes unfurl' d, And Love and Beauty rule the willing world. 6o III. I. ~' SYLPHs! YOUR Lold myriads on the withering heath Stay the fell SYRoc's fuffocative breath; Arreft SrMOC?M in his realms of fand, The poifoned javelin balanced in his hand ;-- Rcproples allbcr realms. I. 6o. Ql:e mare navigerum et terras frugifcrent:es Concelebras ; per te quoniam genus omnc animantum Concipitur, vi!itque cxortum lumina folis. LucRET. Arrejl Simoom. I. 65. "At eleven o'clock while we were with great pleafure contemplating the rugged tops of Chiggre, where we expetl:ed to folace ourfelves with plenty of good water, Idris cried out with a loud voice, " fall upon your faces, for here is t.he fimeom !" I faw from the S. E. a haze come in colour like the purple part of a rambow, but not fo compreffcd or thick; it did not occupy twenty yards in breadth, and was about twelve feet high from the ground. It was a kind of a bluih upon the. air, and it moved very rapidly, for I fcarce could turn to fall upon the ground With my head to the northward, when I felt the heat of its current plainly upon my face. We all lay flat upon the ground, as if dead, till ldris told us it was blown over. The meteor, or purple haze, which I faw was indeed paffed · Fierce on blue ftreams he rides the tainted air,. Points his keen eye,. and w4ves his whiftling hair;. While, as he turns, the undulating foil Rolls in red waves, and billowy deferts boil. 70 but the light air that !till blew was of heat to threaten fuffocation. For my part I found difiintl:ly in my breal1, that I had imbibed a part of it; nor was I free of ;n· afihmatic fenfation till I.-had been fome months in Italy." Bruce's Travels. Vol. IV. P· 557· It is difficult to account for the narrow track of this pefiilential wind, which is faid not to exceed twenty yards, and for its fmall elevation of twelve feet. A whirlwind will pafs forwards, and throw down an avenue of trees by its quick revolution as it paffes; but nothing like a whirlwind is defcribed as happening in thefe narrow fireams of air, and whirlwinds afcend to greater heights. There feems but one known manner in which this channel of air could be effetl:ed, and that is by elcB:ricity. The volcanic origin of thefc winds is mentioned in the note on Chunda in Vol. II. of this work; it mul1 here be added, that Profeffor Vairo at Naples found, that during the eruption of Vefuvius perpendicular iron bars were electric; and others have obferved fuffocating damps to attend thefe eruptions. Ferber's Travels in Italy, p. 133· And lafily, th:lt a current of air attends the p::ffage of eletl:ric m:1tter, as is feen in prefenting an eleB:rized point to the flame of a c:Inclle. In Mr. Bruce's account of this fimoom, it was in its courfe over a quite dry defert of f:1nd, (and which was in confequence unable to condutl: an eleCtric 11ream into the earth beneath it,) to fome moil1 rocks at but a . few miles diflancc; and thence would appear to be a fiream of cletl:ricity from a volcano attended with noxious air; and as the bodies of Mr. Bruce and his attendants were infubted on the fand, they would not he ffnfible of their increafed elctl:ricity, as it paffed over them; to which it may be added, that a fulphurous or fuffocating fmfation . is faid to accompany flaihes of lightning, and even firong fparks of artificial eleB:ricity. In the above account of the fimoom, a great rednefs in the air is faid to be a certain fign of its approach, which may be occafioncd by the eruption of flame from a difl:~nt volcano in thcfe extenfivc and impenetrable deferts of fand. Sec Note on I. 29~of this Canto •. |