Page:The Natural History of Pliny.djvu/105

 Chap. 45.] TvrcTDS. 71 (44.) The Avindings and the nmnerous 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 ot 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 There are also, in many houses, artificial cavities, forme din the walls ^which produce currents of air; none of these are without their appropriate cause, CHAP. 45. — VAEIOTJS OBSEEYATIONS BESPECTIT^G WINDS. But there is a great difference between a gale and a wind^ The former are uniform and appear to rush forth^ ; they are felt, not in certain spots only, but over whole countries, not forming breezes or squalls, but ^olent storms 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 soH ; De Mundo, cap. 4. p. 605. For the origin and meaning of the terms here appUed to the wmds, see the re- marks of Hardouin and Alexandre, in Lemaire, i. 323. 1 This is mentioned by Pomp. Mela. 2 " In domibus etiam multis manu facta inclusa opacxtate concepta- cula " Some of the MSS. have madefacia for maim facta, and this reading has been adopted by Lemaire ; but nearly all the editors, as Palechamps, Laet, Grovonius, Poincinet and Ajasson, retam the former word. „ 3 The terms in the original are " flatus" and " ventus. ■* " illos (flatus) statos atque perspirantes." 6 « qui non aura, non proctUa, scd mares appeUatione quoque ipsa venti stmt." This passage cannot be translated into English, from our lan- guage not possessing the technical distinction of genders, as depending on the termination of the substantives.