Page:The Natural History of Pliny.djvu/105

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
Chap. 45.]
WINDS.
71

(44.) The windings and the numerous peaks of mountains, their ridges, bent into angles or broken into defiles, with the hollow valleys, by their irregular forms, cleaving the air which rebounds from them (which is also the cause why voices are, in many cases, repeated several times in succession), give rise to winds.

(45.) There are certain caves, such as that on the coast of Dalmatia, with a vast perpendicular chasm, into which, if a light weight only be let down, and although the day be calm, a squall issues from it like a whirlwind. The name of the place is Senta. And also, in the province of Cyrenaica, there is a certain rock, said to be sacred to the south wind, which it is profane for a human hand to touch, as the south wind immediately rolls forwards clouds of sand[1]. There are also, in many houses, artificial cavities, formed in the walls[2], which produce currents of air; none of these are without their appropriate cause.

CHAP. 45.—VARIOUS OBSERVATIONS RESPECTING
WINDS.

But there is a great difference between a gale and a wind[3]. The former are uniform and appear to rush forth[4]; they are felt, not in certain spots only, but over whole countries, not forming breezes or squalls, but violent storms[5]. Whether they be produced by the constant revolution of the world and the opposite motion of the stars, or whether they both of them depend on the generative spirit of the nature of

    ceed from a marshy and moist soil; De Mundo, cap. 4. p. 605. For the origin and meaning of the terms here applied to the wmds, see the remarks of Hardouin and Alexandre, in Lemaire, i. 323.

  1. ↑ This is mentioned by Pomp. Mela.
  2. ↑ "In domibus etiam multis manu facta inclusa opacitate conceptacula . . . . ." Some of the MSS. have madefacta for manu facta, and this reading has been adopted by Lemaire; but nearly all the editors, as Palechamps, Laët, Grovonius, Poincinet and Ajasson, retam the former word.
  3. ↑ The terms in the original are "flatus" and "ventus."
  4. ↑ "illos (flatus) statos atque perspirantes."
  5. ↑ "qui non aura, non procella, sed mares appellatione quoque ipsa venti sunt." This passage cannot be translated into English, from our language not possessing the technical distinction of genders, as depending on the termination of the substantives.
This article is issued from Wikisource. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.