They Likewise Lay
Their Account With Being Visited By Showers Of Rain And Gusts Of
Wind In April.
A week's rain in the middle of August makes them
happy.
It not only refreshes the parched ground, and plumps up
the grapes and other fruit, but it cools the air and assuages the
beets, which then begin to grow very troublesome; but the rainy
season is about the autumnal equinox, or rather something later.
It continues about twelve days or a fortnight, and is extremely
welcome to the natives of this country. This rainy season is
often delayed 'till the latter end of November, and sometimes
'till the month of December; in which case, the rest of the
winter is generally dry. The heavy rains in this country
generally come with a south-west wind, which was the creberque
procellis Africus, the stormy southwest, of the antients. It is
here called Lebeche, a corruption of Lybicus: it generally blows
high for a day or two, and rolls the Mediterranean before it in
huge waves, that often enter the town of Nice. It likewise drives
before it all the clouds which had been formed above the surface
of the Mediterranean. These being expended in rain, fair weather
naturally ensues. For this reason, the Nissards observe le
lebeche racommode le tems, the Lebeche settles the weather.
During the rains of this season, however, the winds have been
variable. From the sixteenth of November, 'till the fourth of
January, we have had two and twenty days of heavy rain: a very
extraordinary visitation in this country: but the seasons seem to
be more irregular than formerly, all over Europe. In the month of
July, the mercury in Fahrenheit's thermometer, rose to eighty-four
at Rome, the highest degree at which it was ever known in
that country; and the very next day, the Sabine mountains were
covered with snow. The same phaemomenon happened on the eleventh
of August, and the thirtieth of September. The consequence of
these sudden variations of weather, was this: putrid fevers were
less frequent than usual; but the sudden cheek of perspiration
from the cold, produced colds, inflammatory sore throats, and the
rheumatism. I know instances of some English valetudinarians, who
have passed the winter at Aix, on the supposition that there was
little or no difference between that air and the climate of Nice:
but this is a very great mistake, which may be attended with
fatal consequences. Aix is altogether exposed to the north and
north-west winds, which blow as cold in Provence, as ever I felt
them on the mountains of Scotland: whereas Nice is entirely
screened from these winds by the Maritime Alps, which form an
amphitheatre, to the land-side, around this little territory: but
another incontestible proof of the mildness of this climate, is
deduced from the oranges, lemons, citrons, roses, narcissus's,
july-flowers, and jonquils, which ripen and blow in the middle of
winter. I have described the agreeable side of this climate; and
now I will point out its inconveniences.
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