the name of a remarkable periodical wind which blows from the interior parts of Africa towards the Atlantic ocean. Of this wind we have the following account in the Phil. Trans. vol. Ixxi, furnished by Mr Norris, a gentleman who had frequent opportunities of observing its singular properties and effects.

On that part of the coast of Africa which lies between Cape Verd and Cape Lopez, an easterly wind prevails during the months of December, January, and February, which by the Fantees, a nation on the Gold coast, is called the Harmattan. Cape Verd is in 15° N. Lat. and Cape Lopez in 19° S. Lat.; and the coast between these two capes runs, in an oblique direction, nearly from W. S. W. to E. S. E. forming a range of upwards of 2100 miles. At the îles de Los, which are a little to the northward of Sierra Leone, and to the southward of Cape Verd, it blows from the E. S. E. on the Gold coast from the N. E. and at Cape Lopez, and the river Gabon, from the N. N. E. This wind is by the French and Portuguese, who frequent the Gold coast, called simply the north-east wind, the quarter from which it blows. The English, who sometimes borrow words and phrases from the Fantee language, which is less guttural and more harmonious than that of their neighbours, adopt the Fantee word Harmattan.

The harmattan comes on indiscriminately at any hour of the day, at any time of the tide, or at any period of the moon, and continues sometimes only a day or two, sometimes five or six days, and it has been known to last fifteen or sixteen days. There are generally three or four returns of it every season. It blows with a moderate force, not quite so strong as the sea- Harmattan breeze (which every day sets in during the fair season from the W., W. S. W., and S. W.); but somewhat stronger than the land wind at night from the N. and N. N. W.

1. A fog or haze is one of the peculiarities which always accompanies the harmattan. The gloom occasioned by this fog is so great, as sometimes to make even near objects obscure. The English fort at Whydah stands about the midway between the French and Portuguese forts, and not quite a quarter of a mile from either, yet very often from thence neither of the other forts can be discovered. The fun, concealed the greatest part of the day, appears only a few hours about noon, and then of a mild red, exciting no painful sensation on the eye.

2. Extreme dryness makes another extraordinary property of this wind. No dew falls during the continuance of the harmattan; nor is there the least appearance of moisture in the atmosphere. Vegetables of every kind are very much injured; all tender plants, and most of the productions of the garden, are destroyed; the grass withers, and becomes dry like hay; the vigorous evergreens likewise feel its pernicious influence; the branches of the lemon, orange, and lime trees droop, the leaves become flaccid, wither, and if the harmattan continues to blow for 10 or 12 days, are so parched, as to be easily rubbed to dust between the fingers: the fruit of these trees, deprived of its nourishment, and stunted in its growth, only appears to ripen, for it becomes yellow and dry, without acquiring half the usual size. The natives take this opportunity of the extreme dryness of the grass and young trees to set fire to them, especially near their roads, not only to keep those roads open to travellers, but to destroy the shelter which long grass, and thickets of young trees, would afford to lurking parties of their enemies. A fire thus lighted flies with such rapidity, as to endanger those who travel: in that situation, a common method of escape is, on discovering a fire to windward, to set the grass on fire to leeward, and then follow your own fire. There are other extraordinary effects produced by the extreme dryness of the harmattan.

The parching effects of this wind are likewise evident on the external parts of the body. The eyes, nostrils, lips, and palate, are rendered dry and uneasy; and drink is often required, not so much to quench thirst, as to remove a painful aridity in the fauces. The lips and nose become sore, and even chapped; and though the air be cool, yet there is a troublesome sensation of pricking heat on the skin. If the harmattan continues four or five days, the scarf skin peels off, first from the hands and face, and afterwards from the other parts of the body if it continues a day or two longer. Mr Norris observed, that when sweat was excited by exercise on those parts which were covered by his clothes from the weather, it was peculiarly acrid, and tasted, on applying his tongue to his arm, something like spirits of hartshorn diluted with water.

3. Salubrity forms a third peculiarity of the harmattan. Though this wind is so very prejudicial to vegetable life, and occasions such disagreeable parching effects on the human species, yet it is highly conducive to health. Those labouring under fluxes and intermittent fevers generally recover in an harmattan. Those weakened by fevers, and sinking under evacuations for the cure of them, particularly bleeding, which is often injudiciously repeated, have their lives saved, and vigour restored, in spite of the doctor. It stops the progress of epidemics; the smallpox, remittent fevers, &c. not only disappear, but those labouring under these diseases, when an harmattan comes on, are almost certain of a speedy recovery. Infection appears not then to be easily communicated even by art. In the year 1779, there were on board the Unity, at Whydah, above 300 slaves; the smallpox broke out among them, and it was determined to inoculate; those who were inoculated before the harmattan came on, got very well through the disease. About 70 were inoculated a day or two after the harmattan set in, but no one of them had either sickness or eruption. It was imagined that the infection was effectually dispersed, and the ship clear of the disorder; but in a very few weeks it began to appear among those seventy. About 50 of them were inoculated the second time; the others had the disease in a natural way: an harmattan came on, and they all recovered, excepting one girl, who had an ugly ulcer on the inoculated part, and died some time afterwards of a locked jaw.

This account differs remarkably from that given by Dr Lind, who calls the harmattan a malignant and fatal wind: (See his Diseases of Hot Climates). As to the nature of the soil over which it blows, it appears that, excepting a few rivers and some lakes, the country about and beyond Whydah is covered for 400 miles back with verdure, open plains of grass, clumps of trees, and some woods of no considerable extent. The surface is sandy, and below that a rich reddish earth. It rises with a gentle ascent for 150 miles from the sea, before there is the appearance of a hill, without affording a stone of the size of a walnut. Beyond these hills there is no account of any great ranges of mountains.