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Show ( I 66 J' Green films of rind his wrinkled neck o' erfpread, And critnfon petals crefl: his curled head; Soft-warbling beaks in each bright bloifom move, And vocal Rofebuds thrill the enchanted grove !-3 20 Admiring Evening flays her beamy fl:ar, And frill Night lifiens from his ebon car; While on white wings defcending Hourics throng, And drink the .floods of odour and of fong. When from his golden urn the Solfiice pours, 3 2 5 ·O'er Afric's fable fons the fultry hours; When not a gale flits o'er her tawny hills, Save where the dry Harmattan breathes and kills; When ftretch' d in duft her gafping panthers lie, And writh' d in foamy folds her fcrpents die ; 3 3 o The dry Harmattan. 1. 328. The Harmattan is a fingu1ar wind blowing from the in- 1:erior parts of Africa to the Atlantic ocean, fometimes for a few hours, fomctimes for feveral days without regular periods. ll is always attended with a fog or haze, fo denfe as to render thofe objech invifible which are at the difbnce of a quarter of a mile; the fun appears through it only about noon, and then of a dilute red, and very minute particles fubfide from the mifly air fo as to make the grafs, and the fkins of negroes appear whitifh. The extreme drynefs which attends this wind or fog, without dews, withers ~nd quite dries. the leaves of vegetables; and is faid by Dr. Lind at fome feafons to be [ 167 ] Indignant Atlas tnourns his leaflefs woods) And Gan1bia trembles for his finking floods ; Contagion fialks along the briny fand, And Ocean rolls his fickning fhoals to land. fatal and malign_ant to m::mkincl; probably after much preceding wet, when it may become loaded with the exhalations from putrid rnarfhcs; at other fcafom it is faid to che~k ~pidcmic difeafes, to cure flnxes, and to heal ulcers and cutaneous eruptions ; whtch IS probably effcCl:ed by its yielding no moiflure to the mouths of the external abforbent vcffels, by which the aClion of the other branches of the abforbent fyflcm is in. creafed to fupply the dcficien y. Account of tho llarm(l//tm, Phil. Tranj. V.LXXI. The Reverend Mr. Sterling gives an ac ount of a d:ukncfs for fix or eight hours at Detroit in America, on the 19th of OC1.ober, 1762, in which the fun appeared as red as blood, and thrice its ufual fize: fame rain !ailing, overed white pnper with dark drop , like f11lphur or dirt, which burnt like wet g11npowder, anJ the air had a very fulphureous fmell. He fuppofes this to have been emitted from fome difiant earthquake or volcano. Philof. Tranf. V.LIII. p. 63. In many circumfl:ances this win~ fcems much to refcmble the dry fog which covered mofl: parts of Europe for many weeks in the fummer of 1780, which has been fuppofcd to have had a volcanic origin, as it fucceedcd the violent eruption of Mount Hecla, and its neighbourhood. From the fubfidcnce of a white powder, it feems probable that the Harmattan has a fimilar origin, from the unexplored mountains of Africa. Nor is it improbable, that the epidemic coughs, which occafionally traverfe immenle tracb of country, may be the produCl:s of volcanic eruptions; nor impofiible, that at fomc future time contagious miafm:lla may be thus emitted from fubterrancous furnaces, in fuch abundance as to contaminate the whole atmofphere, and depopulate the earth J Hisfickcning jhoals. I. 334· Mr. Marfden relates, that in the ifland of Sumatra, during the November of 1775, the dry monfoons, or S. E. winds, continued fo 11111 h longer than ufual, that the large rivers became dry; and prodigious quantities of fca-fifh, dead and dying, were fcen floating for leagues on the fea, and driven on the beach by the tides. This was fuppofed to have been caufcd by the great evaporation, and the deficiency of frcfh-watcr rivers having rendered the fea too fait for its inhabitants. The fcafon then became fo fickly as to defl:roy great numbers of people, both foreigners and natives. Phil. Tranf. V.LXXI. p. 384. |
