Volume 1

Atlas geographus: or, a compleat system of geography, ancient and modern / Containing what is most of use in Bleau, Varenius, Cellarius, Cluverius, Baudrand, Brietius, Sanson, &c. With the discoveries and improvements of the best modern authors to this time. Illustrated with about 100 new maps, done from the latest observations, by Herman Moll, geographer. And many other cuts, by the best artists.

  • Moll, Herman, -1732
Date:
1711-1717
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Atlas geographus: or, a compleat system of geography, ancient and modern / Containing what is most of use in Bleau, Varenius, Cellarius, Cluverius, Baudrand, Brietius, Sanson, &c. With the discoveries and improvements of the best modern authors to this time. Illustrated with about 100 new maps, done from the latest observations, by Herman Moll, geographer. And many other cuts, by the best artists. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    112/1070 (page 74)
    feveral Places of the World : But he owns, he never read of any Winds breaking out of the Sea. Prop. 14. Upon the Queftion, Whether Wind rifes from the Flux of the Sea and Rivers ? He fays, ’tis plain from Experience, That when the Sea flows and ebbs, if the Air be free from other {Longer Winds, there’s generally a Wind from the Sea with Tide of Flood : Therefore he thinks ’tis probable that the Air, becaufe of its Con¬ tiguity, is carried towards the fame Quar¬ ter with the Water ; or, he thinks, the Air may be thruft from its Place by the flowing Water; for the Air is mov’d with a very fmall Impreflioo. Prop. 15. He gives the Reafon why Tgnes, fatal, Caffor, Pollux, and Helena, are perceiv’d during Tempefts. The Portuguefe call’em Corpo Santo ; the Spaniards, St. Elmo. Many of them are fometimes feen moving about the Mafts of Ships, with a wandering and uncertain Motion, like other Ignes-fatuii thoT at other times they reft upon the Mafts and Sails, and give a faint Light, like a Can¬ dle that burns dark. If 5 of them be feen together, the Portuguefe call them, Our Lady's Crown, and take them as a certain Token thac the 'Tempeft will immediately ceafe. The Caufe of thefe Fires he thinks to be a Sulphureous Bituminous Matter, thruft downward by the great'Motion of the Air, and being gather’d together, is fet on fire by the Agitation and coming together of the Particles. Prop. 16. He thinks the Caufe of the frequent and long Calms in the Sea near Guinea, and under the Equator in the Atlan¬ tic, efpecially in April, May and June, to be, that there’s no Snow upon the Mountains in thofe Parts, which, by its DifloJution, may generate Winds. Sect. XXIV. HEre ’tis fit to add what Mr .Edmund Hal- fey fays, in his Hi for leal Account of the Trade Winds and Monfoons obfew able in the Seas between and near the Tropics ; with an Attempt to ajfgn the Phyfical Caufe of the faid Winds. He fays, This is a Part of Natural Hi ftory, no lefs defirable and ufeful, than hard to obtain : That Vanniuss Account of it is not accurate, but full of Miftakes, which he will endeavour to reXify. from the Ac¬ counts of experienc’d Sailors, and his own Obfervations whilft he liv’d between the Tropics. The Subftance of what he had collected, is briefly as follows: The Univerfal Ocean may moft properly be divided into 3 Parts, viz. 1. The Atlan¬ tic and Ethiopic Sea. 2. Tlhslndian Ocean. ,3. The great South Sea,or the Pacifick Ocean. And tho’ thefe Seas do all communicate by the South, yet, as to our prefent Purpofe of the Trade-Winds, they are fufliciently fepa- rated by the Interpolation of great TraXs of.Land ; the firft lying between Africa and America; the fecond betweenAfrica and the /»^>» Iflands, and Hollandia Nova y and the laft between the Philippine Ifles, China, Ja¬ pan, and HoUandia Nova, on the Weft, and the Coaft of America on the Eaft. Now fol¬ lowing this Natural Divifion of the Seas, To will we divide our Hiftory into 3 Parts in the fame Order. I. In the Atlantic and Ethiopic Seas, be¬ tween the Tropics, there is a general Eafter- ly Wind all the Year long, without any confiderable Variation, excepting that it is iubjeX to be defLXed there from fome few Points of the Compafs towards the North or South, according to the Pofition of the Place. The Obfervations which have been made of thefe Deflexions are the follow¬ ing : 1. That near the Coaft of Africa, as foon as you have pafs’d the Canary Ifles, you are fure to meet a frelh Gale of N. E. Wind, about the Latitude of 28 Degrees North, which feldom comes to the Eaftward of the E. N E. or pafles the N. N. E. This Wind accompanies thofe bound to the Southward to the Latitude of 10 North, and about 100 Leagues from the Guinea Coaft, where, till the 4th Degree of North Latitude, they fall into the Calms and Tor¬ nados : Of which more hereafter. 2. That thofe bound to theCaribbe Ifles, find, as they approach the American Side, that the aforefaid N. E. Wind becomes ftill more and more Eafterly, fo as fometimes to be E. fometimes E. by S. but yet moft com¬ monly to the.North ward of the Eaft a Point or two, feldotn more. ’Tis likewife ob- ferv’d, That the Strength of thefe Winds does