But Even During This, Their Worst Weather,
The Sun Breaks Out Occasionally, And You May Take The Air Either
A-Foot Or On Horseback Every Day; For The Moisture Is Immediately
Absorbed By The Earth, Which Is Naturally Dry.
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.
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