Maugre the
Levantine Wind, which blows at Sea (but with a slacker gale all night; which seems to shew it depends not only on the motion of the Earth, but Sun.) Whence this Wind should come, may be considered; there is none at
Barbadoes or
Saona, but at all the other Islands. And in
Jamaica every night it blows off the island every way at once, so that no ship can any where come in by night, nor go out but early in the morning, before the
Sea-brise come in. I have often thought on it and could imagine no other reason, but that those Exhalations, which the Sun hath raised in the day, make haste (after his strength no longer supports them) to those Mountains by a motion of
Similar Attraction,*
* Possibly it may be more plain, to say, That those Exhalations, condensed by the cool of the night and impelled downwards, fall by their weight, and then first of all meeting with the higher parts of the Earth, must needs gather and settle about the same, in clouds. and there gather in Clouds, and break thence by their own force and weight, and occasion a wind every way. For, as the Sun declines, the Clouds gather, and shape according to the Mountains, so that old Seamen will tell you each Island in the afternoon towards Evening by the shape of the Cloud over it. And this
Attraction appears further, not only from the Rain that gathers on the Tree in the Island of
Ferro, spoken of by
J. Hawkins in his Observations, and
Is. Vossius upon
Pomponius Mela, as also
Magnensis de Manna; but also from the Rains in the
Indies, there being certain Trees which attract the Rain, though Observations have not been made of the
kinds; so as that if you destroy the Woods, you abate or destroy the
Rains. So
Barbadoes hath not now half the Rains, it had, when more wooded. In
Jamaica likewise at
Guanaboa they have diminisht the Rains as they extended their Plantations. But (to return to
Jamaica) that this night-wind depends much upon the Mountain, appears by this, that its force extends to an equal distance from the Mountain, so that at
Portmorant, which is the Easter-most part of the Island, there is little of Land-brise, because the Mountain is remote from thence, and the
brise spends its force along the land thither. I shall further illustrate this kind of Attraction. In the harbor of
Jamaica there grow many Rocks, shap'd like Bucks and Stags horns: there grow also several Sea-plants, whose roots are stony. Of these stone-trees (if I may term them so) some are insipid, but others perfectly Nitrous. Upon those other Plants with petrified roots there gathers a Lime-stone, which fixes not upon
other Sea-fans, growing by them. It is observab1e also, that a
Monchinel-Apple, falling into the
