danger of returning cold. The accumulated fnows of the win- ter remaining to be diffolved all together in the fpring, produced thofe overflowings of our rivers, fo frequent then, and fo rare now.
Having had occafion to mention the particular fituation of Monticello for other purposes, I will juft take notice that its elevation affords an opportunity of feeing a phaenomenon which is rare at land, though frequent at fea. The fea-men call it looming. Philofophy is as yet in the rear of the feamen, for fo far from having accounted for it, fhe has not given it a name. Its principal efFed: is to make dif- tant objefts appear larger, in oppoiition to the general law of vifion, by which they are diminifiied. I knew an inftance, at York-town, from whence the water profpeft eaftwardly is without termination, wherein a canoe with three men, at a great diftance was taken for a fhip with its three mafts. I am little acquainted with the phaenomenon as it (hews itfelf at fea; but at Monticello it is familiar. There is a folitary mountain about forty miles off in the South, whofe natural fhape, as pre- fented to view there, is a regular cone;