button to main menu  Otley's Guide 1823 (5th edn 1834)

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Page 165:-

meteorology
METEOROLOGY.
BESIDES the permanent beauties of a country diversified by hills and dales, mountains and lakes, there are transient subjects capable of arresting the attention of the contemplative observer; amongst which are,- the mists or fogs - forming over the surface of lakes - floating along the sides of hills - or collected into clouds, hovering upon the summits of mountains.
  clouds
  mist

Mountains have been supposed to attract the clouds with which their summits are so frequently enveloped; but it is more to their agency in forming them, that the accumulation of clouds in mountainous countries may be attributed. Clouds are formed of aqueous particles floating in the atmosphere; and they serve as an awning, to shield the earth from the violence of the sun's rays in hot weather; and to protect it from the rigour of a cold winter's night, by obstructing the radiation of heat from its surface. In the clearest weather a portion of water always exists in the atmosphere in the state of an invisible vapour; and the higher the temperature, the greater quantity it is able to sustain; so
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