and serene weather, known by the name of Indian summer. The mean annual temperature, deduced from observations made during eight years, at or near Cincinnati, commencing in 1806, and terminating in 1813, was found to be 541° of Fahrenheit, which corresponds with that of deep wells and perennial springs. The mean annual range, during the same period, was 100°. The average heat of each month was as follows:

The mean term of the greatest diurnal variation from cold to heat is 29° 32', and from heat to cold, 28° 37'.

The mean annual difference between the coldest and warmest parts of the day, at Cincinnati, was 15°. The greatest cold ever known was on the 8th of January 1797, when the Mercury fell 18° below 0. In that year the Ohio was frozen during four weeks, and there was frost as late as the 22d of May. The greatest heat is 98°. The mercury rises to 90°, or upwards, during fourteen days of summer. The southwest wind prevails nine months in the year; from March to November inclusively. The wind is generally from the north-west in December, January, and February. The greatest quantity of rain falls in April and May, and the annual quantity in the southern

parts of the Miami country is about thirty-six inches. The greatest depth of snow seldom exceeds four inches, and is of short duration; but in the more northern parts, and near the waters of Lake Erie, between 40° and 41° degrees of latitude, it is deeper and of longer duration. Near the Scioto river, in latitude 40° 40′ the snow was twenty inches deep on the 4th of January 1815, while at Cincinnati it was only four. Frost seldom appears in the valley of the Ohio before the 1st of October. On the 14th of February 1817, the Ohio, near Maruetta, was frozen to the depth of nineteen inches. The parroquet frequents this country as high as the parallel of 394°, and the soft-shelled turtle is found in the waters of the Ohio, although it is not seen in any of the Atlantic States to the north of Georgia. The catalpa grows on the Wabash, in the latitude of the Miami country; the reed or cane as far east as the Big Sandy river at Cincinnati. Vegetation commences in the first week of March; the peach-tree is in blossom the first week of April. Cherries, raspberries, and strawberries, are ripe in the first days of June, and peaches about the first of August. * At Cincinnati the cold is considered as very great, if the ground exposed to the sun's rays remains frozen during a month. The frost does not penetrate to the depth of more than five vr six inches. The vernal frosts disappear in the beginning of May. Those of autumn generally commence about the end of September. Dr Forsyth re

See Drake's Picture of Cincinnati, Section IV.

marks, that at Wheeling the atmosphere is very moist; that it is difficult to keep milk twelve hours in the cellar without souring, or books without being injured by mould. From a number of ingenious observations and experiments, Mr Jefferson concluded, that the valley of the Ohio has a temperature equal to three degrees of latitude greater than the same parallel in the Atlantic states. Dr Drake, in opposition to this opinion, remarks, that the mean temperature deduced from eight years' observation at Cincinnati is 54° 25′; and, according to Dr Rush, the annual heat of Philadelphia is 52° 5'. Dr Cope states it to be 54° 16'. Mr Legaux gives the mean heat of Springmill, on the Schuylkill river, at 53° 32'. The mean term of these is 53° 66'; a temperature only six-tenths of a degree lower than that of Cincinnati, situated fifty minutes farther south. The arguments deduced from the circumstance of certain plants and animals are also combated by this same author, who observes, that the parroquet, a bird of the tropical regions, travels along the Mississippi and Ohio, attracted by its favourite food, the fruit of the cockle bur, (Xanthum strumarum,) cypress, trackberry, beech, and sycamore, which are little productive in Pennsylvania; and also by the salines, near which flocks of parroquets are The catalpa, it is observed, is regulated more by soil than by climate; for it grows on the Wabash, in the latitude of the Miami country, and at Cincinnati, where it was not found to be indigenous. It also grows in Pennsylvania. The reed or cane in

often seen.

7

Kentucky was found to resist the severe cold of 1796-7, when the thermometer sunk several degrees below 0.

We incline nevertheless to believe, that the difference of temperature between the valley of the Ohio and that of the Atlantic coast is nearly as great as Mr Jefferson has stated. The winter of the former is shorter and milder, as is evident from its vegetable productions, and the birds of passage which are annually seen.

Minerals.-Iron ore is common on the banks of the Hockhocking, on Bush creek, in Adam's county, also in Columbiana county and the northern parts. Iron bog ore abounds in the low lands of Paint creek, a branch of the Scioto. Silver ore.-Fragments of this mineral have been dug up near the Yellow spring, in Green county. There are several quarries of excellent flint; and a rock lately examined is found to give good millstones. Limestone, of a blue or greyish blue colour, abounds throughout the state. Freestone.-Fine quarries are opened in the vicinity of Athens, and on the banks of the Hockhocking. Coal is dug up near the surface, on the banks of the Ohio, where it is supposed to be inexhaustible. Large beds extend through all the hilly parts. Saltpetre and alum have been discovered in some parts; aluminous earth is very abundant. Epsom salt (sulphate of magnesia) is in great quantity, about forty miles from Wheeling, where it covers the whole surface, around a ledge of rocks, to the depth of six

inches. * There are salt springs on the Scioto river, belonging to the state; also near the Muskingum, and in the military tract.

Mineral Springs.-The most celebrated is the Yellow spring, in Green county, 64 miles from Cincinnati, and two from the falls of the Little Miami. It is described as a chalybeate, holding in solution oxide of iron and carbonate of lime, and is found to be useful in cases of debility and chronic diseases. Its temperature is 52 degrees, which is also that of the neighbouring springs. Seneca oil, a kind of petroleum, is found up the Muskingum, in the bed of this river and that of its branches, when the waters are low. It rises in bubbles, and floats on the surface of the water, where it is confined by means of stones. Forest Trees. Many of the finest trees of the American forests are found in this state. and dry lands are, covered with oak of different kinds, red, white, and black; hickery, walnut, ash, poplar, dogwood, red and white, mulberry, sassafras, cucumber tree, and some yellow pine. The low lands with button wood, white pine, hemlock, butternut, tulip tree, locust, honey locust, black alder, black willow, papaw, beech, elm, cedar, and cypress. Some of the sycamore trees, in the neighbourhood of Pittsburgh, are from ten to sixteen feet in diameter. It is stated by Mr Harris, that one of this species (near Marietta) was 60 feet in circumference, and being

The high

Forsyth's Topog. of the Ohio, in the Med. Rep. of New York, 1809, p. 352.

VOL. II.