254 ADDITIONAL NOTES.

This violent effe& of the poiſon at ſo great a diſtance from the tree, certainly appears ſurpriſing, and almoſt in- credible: and eſpecially, when we conſider that it is poſ- ſible for delinquents who approach the tree to return alive. My wonder, however, in a great meaſure, ceaſed, after I had made the following obſervations:

1 have ſaid before, that malefactors are inſtructed to go to the tree with the wind, and to return againſt the wind. When the wind continues to blow from the ſame quarter while the delinquent travels thirty, or ſix and thirty miles, iſhe be of a good conſtitution, he certainly ſurvives. But what proves the moſt deſtrudtive 18, that there 15 no de pendence on the wind in that part of the world for any

length of time.--There are no regular land-winds; and

the ſea-wind is not perceived there at all, the ſituation of

the tree being at too great a diſtance, and ſurrounded by high mountains and uncultivated foreſts. Beſides, the wind there never blows a freſh regular gale, but is com- monly merely a current of light, ſoft breezes, which paſs through the different openings of the adjoining mountains. It is allo frequently difficult to determine from what part of the globe the wind really comes, as it is divided by various obſtrudtions in its paſſage, which eaſily change the direion of the wind, and often totally deſtroy its effects. 1, therefore, impute the diſtant effets of the poilon, in

a great meaſure, to the conſtant gentle winds in thoſe parts,

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