either whole or femi-tones: we do not know their specific names for the several tones rifing and falling in the fcale. Harmony was divided into the treble and the bafe. The infruments were organical and rythmical. The firft included the ftuic or bugle-horn, the gall-trompa, the trumpa, and many other varieties. The rythmical were, the tiompan or drum, the chrotal, the clairfech, &c. He fhows how the Oirpeaus, or Scythic harp, was adapted to vocal mufic, by filling up the fifths and thirds in each fcale; by which they were enabled to complete their fcale, and increase the number of ftrings from 18 to 28, in which the original chromatic tones were retained, and the whole formed on the oral improved fyfem. There are many valuable obfervations in this effay. (To be continued.) ART. VII. Obfervations upon the Nature and Properties of the Atmosphere: defcribing the Effects of Heat and Cold in it. The Theory and Caufe of Winds. The Rife and Fall of Vapour. The Caufes of Squalls, Tornadoes, and Hurricanes, and of the Varieties of Weather. To which are added, Obfervations on the Moon's Influence upon the Atmosphere, and the Rife and Fall of the Mercury in the Barometrical Tube, By Murdo Downie, a Master in the Royal Navy, and Author of the "Marine Survey of the East Coast of Scotland." 8vo. 96 pp. 2s. 6d. Aberdeen printed; fold by Steel, Tower-Hill. 1801. THOUGH this tract has accidentally lain by, till it has become almoft obfolete, yet as it comes from a distance, and contains fome original obfervations on nature, we shall not pass it in filence. Its principal contents are arranged under four divisions: 1. Of the Atmosphere in General, p. 16. 2. Of Water, as it exifts in the Atmosphere, p. 44. 3. On the Influence of the Moon upon the Atmosphere, p. 82. 4. On the Rife and Fall of the Mercury in the Barometrical Tube, p. 85. These topics are illuftrated by many phænomena, obferved in every quarter of the world. An Introduction is prefixed, wherein this author points out the extenfive influence of the ftate of the atmosphere on the feafons, on the weather, on vegetation, &c. He obferves (what indeed had been already observed by a great many other writers) that from a careful obfervation and knowledge of the peculiar peculiar nature of the feafons, together with the concomitant phænomena, during a number of years, "an eftimate may be formed how a future may turn out, together with every thing that may tend to throw any light upon the feeming uncertainty of the winds and weather." He then proceeds to fay, that the theories relative to the nature of the atmofphere, and whatever depends upon it; fuch as winds, rain, temperature, &c. which are contained in the present work, are the fruit of thirty years experience, during which time he has traverfed both fides of the Atlantic Ocean, and its adjoining feas, in different directions. The Introduction contains alfo the defcription of a waterfpout, which this author obferved on the 9th of October, 1795. This, being a curious fact, we shall give in his own words. "Upon the forenoon of the 9th of October, 1795, while cruizing in his Majesty's fhip Refolution, of 74 guns (then bearing the flag of the late Admiral Murray) in company with his Majesty's thip Africa, of 64 guns, commanded by the late Admiral, then Captain Home, in latitude 32, and longitude 661 W. having the wind at Ñ. N. E. blowing a fresh gale, and the fhip fleering by the wind eaft for the ifland of Bermuda, we were furprised with a waterfpout formed in an inftant, directly to leeward, at about two miles or little more diftant. Both the Africa and us fired feveral 18 pound fhot at it, which fell a little fhort; and although fome of the hot fell very near, yet they had no vifible effect upon it. Its appearance was that of a long flender pillar, with the upper end fpreading into a large denfe cloud, of which it feemed to form a part, and the lower end reached to within about 20 or 30 feet of the fea, where it was obfcured from the fight by the water being violently thrown up and agitated, fo as to refemble a number of fountains or water engines playing perpendicularly round the lower end of the fpout. The pillar became more tranfparent in proportion as it decreased in fize from the cloud downward, until at the lower end, where it was nearly perfectly fo; and a small column, of an equal diameter and more tranfparent than the reft, appeared up through the middle, fo that about the lower end it refembled an empty glass tube in appearance; from thence the tranfparent column in the middle became gradually obfcured, the higher up, by the opacity of the outside, until it altogether difappeared near the cloud. The fpout appeared at its full fize, or nearly fo, when firft feen, and began to decrease fhortly after, and turning gradually fmaller, it in a fhort time vanished in a flight fhower.-We were too intent gazing at this extraordinary phænomenon to mark the exact time it lafted, but fuppofed it to continue 10 or 15 minutes, and its distance from the fhip was pretty accurately afcertained by the fhot fired at it nearly reaching; but what appeared moft remarkable was, that although the wind blew fo ftrong a gale, that the fhip could only carry reefed topfails, (from which the velocity of the wind cannot be eftimated at lefs than 30 or 40 miles an hour) yet the waterspout feemed to move but very little from the place where it was firft feen. The fhip was going at the rate of 5 miles an hour, and increasing her distance from the spout, yet after continuing the above-mentioned time, it was confiderably within the verge of the visible horizon as feen from the quarter-deck, when it vanished (as upon the quarter deck the eye was elevated 23 feet above the furface of the fea, the horizon would therefore be feen about 6 miles diftant): now allowing the fhip to have increafed her diftance from the fpout half a mile during its continuance, and that it vanished a mile within the verge of the vifible horizon, which, together with 2 miles it was diftant when firft feen, will make in all 3 miles, which taken from 6 miles (the distance of the visible horizon) leaves 24 miles for the spout to move in 10 minutes; whereas the wind must have gone at least 5 miles in that time, and confequently 24 miles fafter than the waterfpout. Indeed it is very probable the waterfpout did not move fo much, in proportion to the wind, as the above calculation gives the least difference between their motions that could have been allowed from the obfervations: the intention of this calculation being principally to prove that the waterspout in fome measure refifted the force of the wind." P.5. The explanation which the author fubjoins, certainly is not clear, nor indeed applicable to the various forms and appearances of water-fpouts in general. In the fection on the Nature and Properties of the Atmofphere, &c. this author, in the firft place, mentions the expanfion of air which is produced by heat, and which produces the winds; he then proceeds to explain the nature of trade-winds, of land and fea-breezes, of the winds which are predominant in particular feafons, and fuch particulars; which he derives, in the ufual way, from the revolutions of the fun, from the degree of heat which the land imbibes more than the sea, and from local circumftances. In the fection on Water, the Afcent of Vapour, &c. a variety of common notions, and obfervations rather fuperficial, are collected together,' fuch as the quantity of evaporation being increased by heat, and retarded by cold; the formation. and difperfion of clouds, the calculation of the quantity of water which is evaporated from the ocean; the general circulation of the atmospherical fluid, from place to place, according as it is influenced by cold, heat, rarefaction, condensation, and fo forth. This rather long feftion concludes with the following fummary, from which, we imagine, our readers will derive a tolerably clear idea of this author's ftyle, as well as knowledge of the fubject. "Having", he fays, " now finished the defcription of the circulation of the atmosphere through its various courfes over the Atlantic Ocean, together with that of the vapour as it is condenfed and precipitated throughout this circulation, I fhall e nclude, and fum up the whole by oblerving, that it evidently appears, from what hath been advanced advanced, that the original circulation of the atmofphere mentioned in the beginning of this work, as carried on from the polar cold to the equatorial heat in the lower regions, and the contrary in the higher, is upon the Atlantic Ocean combined with another circulation carried on horizontally in the lower regions by the trade-winds, which is continually flowing to the weftward in the equatorial climates, and returning again to the eastward through the climates between thofe and the polar cold. And that the fouth and north circulation carried on in the lower and higher regions is brifke it upon and near the borders of the northern froit, because it is there that the greatest difference between heat and cold comes within the leaft diftance of each other; therefore in the fummer months, by thefe borders being removed fo near the pole, this fouth and north circulation must be carried on brifkeft there, and thus leave a larger space for the other circulation caused by the trade-winds to perform is revolution, by which means the atmosphere will have a greater diftance to move to the northward in foutherly winds, through the higher and lower regions along the North American coafts, and a fo to move to the fouthward in northerly winds, in the lower region over the continent of Europe and its coafts, before it arrive at the fource of the trade-winds. But in the winter feafon, when the circulation is removed farther from the pole, from the froft not reaching near fo far to the fouthward upon the western European coafts, as it does upon the eastern American coafts, the northern course of the atmosphere upon the latter coaft is but very fhort, and therefore muft proceed in a N. E. direction across the Atlantic Ocean, in order to its getting far enough north for supplying the fouthern flow of atmosphere from the margin of the frolty region upon the northern parts of the European coals. "The circulation of the atmosphere, in its courfe to the eastward and fouthward, is found upon the European fide to proceed at times in a different direction to what it does at others; fometimes it proceeds to the fouthward, round, or perhaps to the wellward of the British Isles, along the coaft of Spain and Portugal toward the trade-winds, and at other times by taking a wider circuit it proceeds up the Baltic, the valleys of the rivers in Germany, and over the lowlands there, and from thence to the fouthward over the Mediterranean. Now as that circulation which comes from the warneft climates, and immediately from off the fea, will carry a much greater quantity of vapour with it than that from a cold climate, and from off the land, it hence follows, that the different courfes which the circulation takes upon the weftern parts of Europe is evidently the caule of the feafons being fo variable there; for instance, with respect to Britain, when the chief bent of the eaftern circulation takes its courfe from the Western Iflands, N. E. over the British Ifles, up the Baltic, and over Germany, the great quantity of vapour which this wind must be loaded with will render the feafon a rainy one, and the ftronger this wind is, the more vapour and the more rain will attend it; but if the circulation to the eattward by being feeble is urned, and proceed to the fouthward before it reach the British Isles, the feafon then will be warm and pleasant.-Again, when the circulation comes over the Greenland Seas, and from thence proceeds fouth along the coafts of Norway, and over the British Ifles to the fouthward fouthward, the feafon will be cold and blighting; but if this Greenland circulation proceeds over the continent of Europe without coming near the British Isles, and no circulation from the weft or S. W. come to Britain, the feafon then will be dry and parchi, g; from which it is evident, that a knowledge of what courfe the circulation may take will lead to a knowledge how the feafon as to weather will turn out, a eircumstance which would be of the molt beneficial fervice to mankind, and to attain which obfervations might be conftantly made in each country concerning it, which by diligently comparing, might in time make confiderable advances towards the difcovery of this mott ufeful and important object." P. 79. The contents of the two laft fections, on the Influence of the Moon, and on the Motion of the Mercury in the Barometer, are not of an interefting nature. At the end of this tract are announced, "Obfervations, fhowing the Caufe and various Directions of the Tides and other Currents in the North Atlantic Ocean, upon its Shores, and in the Seas communicating with it," by the fame author. Thefe, if they have ever ap peared, have not reached us. From the general tenor of the prefent work, the reader will be naturally induced to allow, that its author is a man of obfervation and experience; he seems, however, to be but fuperficially acquainted with the obfervations, the experiments, and the numerous calculations that have been made. and published by various able perfons; hence his explanations are frequently applied to particular facts, and his theories depend on the flight foundation of imperfect documents. In a fubject fo intricate and fo extenfive as that of meteorology, the obfervations of a fingle perfon, bear a very inconfiderable proportion to that immenfe flock of knowledge which may be required to furnish any thing approaching to a competent idea of the whole; but it is from the collective evidence of the never too numerous obfervations, made throughout the world, that any useful and general laws of nature are likely to be derived. ART. VIII. An Excurfion in France, and other Parts of the Continent of Europe, from the Ceffation of Hoftilities in 1801, to the 13th of December, 1803. Including a Narrative of the unprecedented Detention of the English Travellers in that Country, as Prifoners of War. By Charles Maclean, M. D. 8vo. 304 pp. 6s. Longman and Co. 1804. HIS is one of the most amufing of the late accounts of France, and the more fo, as it includes a part of the time to which accounts in general have not reached, the period THI |