it is found to prevail at this place, but seven months out of twelve. Of about sixteen hundred observations made during that period, something more than five hundred are S. W. It does not, however, blow a third of the time, as this statement would seem to indicate. It seldom continues through the night, like most of our other winds, and the time of its actual existence, is not equal to a third of the year.

Our author's character of this, as of the other winds, of the United States, is drawn in lively colours, which are in the main well chosen. There is, however, one distinction of considerable importance, that he has omitted. The S. W. wind of the western country, is of two kinds, or exhibits two opposite states, wet and dry. The former, as its designation implies, is constantly attended with, or produces rain; it is accompanied with those forms of cloud which have been denominated stratus and cirrostratus; it frequently and suddenly alternates with the N. E., blows through the night with the same velocity it had in the day, and generally continues from twenty-four to seventy-two hours. It is doubtless a current of rarefied intra-tropical air, gravitating towards the poles in the manner pointed out by Dr. Hadley; and not turned northwardly by reflection, as Mr. V. supposes.

Essentially different from this humid current, which expands the hygrometer to a very high degree, is the arid S. W. which contracts it lower than any other. Dryness is not, however, the most striking characteristic of this wind. The most distinctive feature, is its nocturnal intermission. It commences moderately, sometime after sunrise, arrives at its maximum in the afternoon, and ceases at the going down of the sun, or soon afterwards. It seldom brings any other form of rain than a thunder shower, and not often that; but it prevails most in times of drought, and is commonly attended with a smoky atmosphere, and that variety of cloud termed cumulus, which is an accompaniment of the dryest weather.

To Mr. Volney's theory of these winds, or rather of this wind, for he makes but one of the two currents, the American literati have made few or no objections. The author of an anonymous essay on the climate of North America, has objected to the details of the French philosopher, but etains his fundamen

tal principle, the deflection by mountains of the Atlantic trade winds over this country. From an attentive consideration of the phenomena of this wind, in the regions, we are disposed to doubt the truth of Mr. Volney's hypothesis, and beg leave to state the following as the principal grounds of our scepticism.

1. It is not probable that the humid and arid S. W. have the same origin, and, as it is almost certain, that the former comes from the Gulf, some other source must be assigned to the latter.

2. If this wind depended on the action of the sun upon the atmosphere of the Gulf, it should be most prevalent when that action is at the maximum of efficiency in July and August. But this is not the case. It frequently prevails in April, May, September and October, when the sun is vertical to places south of the Gulf. Even after the greatest solar influence had reached those parts of S. America, which lie beyond the eastern promontory of that continent; the dry S. W. has continued to be the prevalent wind in the Ohio countries. And for five days before, and sixteen days after the summer solstice, the S. W. has been known at this place, to blow but five days, or about a fourth of the time.

3. The trade wind does not cease at night, but the arid S. W., as we have already stated, invariably does. This certainly indicates a considerable degree of difference between them. But if the trade wind had nocturnal intermissions, it could not account for the nightly suspension, and morning revival of the S. W. wind of this country. It requires several hours for a column of air to travel from the Gulf to the Ohio, and it is impossible to believe that the succeeding day's wind, in these vallies, is owing to the sun's action on the atmosphere of the Gulf the preceding day, for it appears to commence throughout the whole of this country nearly at the same time.

4. According to Mr. Volney's own statement, the atmosphere of the Gulf, from sending out immeasurable quantities of air along the slopes of the Missisippi, must stand in need of a corresponding supply from towards the pole, and hence the frequency of the N. E. wind. This is certainly true. But Mr. V.

seems to have forgotten, that he had previously supplied, indeed condensed the atmosphere of the Gulf, with the trade wind from the east; and that the breezes up the Missisippi, are, in reality, only the ærial overflowings of the Gulf. It is the property of a spring to straighten itself when bent, but not to return beyond its natural state, and become permanently crooked the other way. If air be accumulated and condensed by the trade wind, in the Gulf, its elasticity may cause it to escape, in the different directions assigned by Mr. V.; but it can continue to escape no longer than till the equilibrium of density is restored. Its centrifugal tendency must necessarily cease, long before any vacuum is produced.

5. The trade wind is known to be caused by the superior action of the sun in the torrid zone. The region to which that luminary is vertical, is a focus of suction, which, moving from E. to W., gives the wind perpetually that direction. Thus it appears to depend on an attracting, rather than a propelling cause. It therefore will exist so as the focus of suction can be generated. But the inefficiency of the sun's power, at considerable elevations, is such, that whenever his rays become perpendicular to the mountains of the northern point of S. America, and the isthmus of Darien, this focus, or rarefied spot, can no longer be produced; and the wind to which it gives rise ceases so completely, that not a breath of it is perceptible west of the Andean chain. Hence we see, that the trade wind results from the law, which gives all fluids a tendency to preserve an equilibrium, and when that equilibrium is restored, the wind must For an accumulation of air to take place in any particular region, a propelling power is essential; but no power of that kind exists in this case, and consequently no undue accumulation can occur; and without such an accumulation, the reflection Mr. V. contends for, cannot be produced. His notions were evidently derived from the established theory of the Gulf stream. That a perpetual wind, from Africa to America, can heap up the water in the Gulf of Mexico, is unquestionable. Such a wind is to the water a propelling power, and its surface is unceasingly driven forward. But we have just seen, that the trade wind is the influx of the denser ambient air, to a rarefied

cease.

spot, that has a progressive motion westward; that it is indeed the result of something similar to attraction, instead of propulsion; and hence there is not in the causes of these two currents, the analogy which Mr. Volney supposed. To sum up the wholethe aqueous is an effect of the ærial current, which results from the rarefying action of the solar rays: the interposition of a mound will cause the former to become retrograde, or flow off laterally, to find its level; but the same interposition must necessarily terminate the latter altogether, by destroying its immediate cause. If any should ask, are there not columns of air behind, that may gradually arrive and accumulate against the elevated mountains of S. America? it may be answered, that according to the Halleyan doctrine of the trade wind, the air of the temperate zones is constantly flowing obliquely into the torrid; from whence it ascends as soon as it has acquired a certain degree of heat; and that if this be true, it is manifest that none of the ærial columns overreach the Gulf, but those which enter the tropics so far west, that they do not become heated to the elevating point, previous to their arrival at that limit. Hence it may be readily understood, how a perpetual wind may set towards the continent of America, without ever crossing, or accumulating over it.

Mr. V. erroneously supposes heated air to act horizontally. It constantly tends upwards, and the potent action of the sun on the Gulf must rarefy, rather than condense its atmosphere. Most of the phenomena indeed which he asserts the Gulf to exhibit in summer, are more naturally referable to a rarefied, than a condensed atmosphere.

If these objections (which are not offered without much hesitation) disprove Mr. Volney's theory, it is unnecessary to consider his details: if they do not, to follow him throughout the whole of his elaborate and ingenious article, would be unprofitable; the subject is therefore for the present dismissed.

FOR THE PORT FOLIO.

COMMENTS ON THE CHARACTER AND WRITINGS OF

OLIVER GOLDSMITH.

Few characters can be found more interesting than Oliver Goldsmith's, and where we shall have to encounter more difficulty of analysis. He possessed a heart feelingly and exquisitely alive to every tender impulse, whether of joy, or sorrow. In the social circle he participated in all the merriment and whim that enlivened the table, and was made sometimes the victim, not so much of the glass, as of the cordial feeling, and hospitable glow excited by such liberal indulgence. Without attempting to vindicate such excess, surely the man who in the circle of private friendship feels his confidence and his heart expand by such artificial stimulants, is not so criminal as he who becomes the sullen and unsocial martyr to the solitary bottle. This man on an occasion where Goldsmith would indulge to excess, would be temperate, and assiduously husband his glass. The reason is obvious; conviviality has no charms for him-in proportion as song, and sentiment, and whim, reigned in all their fascinating and gay vicissitudes, he would sit at the table with a countenance grave and austerely demure. His eyes are fastened on the company present, and as the hand of confidence unlocks the portals of every heart, he is a spy upon every one. He is collecting materials for future vengeance, and plotting mischief while seated in the bosom of private friendship. After the company have dispersed and this man returns to his home, the doors are carefully barred, and he, who before could so austerely resist the temptations of the glass, now reels a solitary drunkard to his bed. Such was not Goldsmith; he was oppressed with poverty, melancholy, and neglect, and his hours of enjoyment were few; he loved his friends, and when they were assembled, he wished to forget the neglect of the world, his own poverty, to raise his drooping and sensitive spirit to a parallel with theirs, and to give the hour to undivided, unmingled enjoyment. Connected with these social qualities, he possessed another trait of character, a wish to shine in conversation, a talent which his