Ocean, the winter becomes gradually milder, and, along the coast, the temperature, owing to the passage of the north-west wind across the ocean, is nearly the same as in the western parts of Eu rope. Mr Volney, in his view of the climate of the United States, has divided the country into four regions. 1. The coldest, including the North Eastern States, from the ocean to the chain of hills which gives rise to the Delaware and Susquehannah rivers. 2. The middle climate, including the southern parts of the State of New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, as far as the river Potowmac. 3. The hot climate, comprising the Southern States, the flat country of Virginia, the two Carolinas, and Georgia, as far as the 29th degree of latitude, where frost is never felt. 4. The climate of the States of Tenessee, Kentucky, and Ohio, situated on the western side of the Alleghany Mountains, which differs, in many respects, from all the preceding. The north-west territory, extending from Lake Michigan on the east, to the Mississippi on the west, and on the north to Lake Superior and the Sources of the Mississippi, presents other varieties of climate. The climate of the Atlantic coast, situated between the 41st and 45th degree of latitude, is colder in winter, and warmer in summer, by nearly ten degrees, than under the same parallels in Europe. It is also subject to more sudden and violent changes, owing principally to the inconstancy of the winds, which, coming from the Atlantic, often change suddenly to an opposite direction, and, traversing a high and uncleared country, produce a cold so great, that the surface of the earth and water is frozen hard in the course of a few hours, and the whole atmosphere is full of icy particles, which, striking against the face of the traveller, create a very disagreeable sensation. The winds which chiefly prevail are the north-west, south-west, and north-east. The first, which blows from the mountains and high Table Land, predominates in winter, and is by far the driest and the coldest; but along the Atlantic coast, where it meets warm clouds and warm currents of air, it produces snow, hail, and sometimes rain; along the banks of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers it produces rain in winter and storms in summer. The great dryness of this wind is manifested by its influence on the walls exposed to its action, which become harder and more durable than those which have a different exposure. From the same cause the sides of forest trees turned to the north-west are also thicker and harder than the others. The south-west wind prevails in summer, and is more constant on the western side of the Apalachian mountains than on the Atlantic coast. In the basin of the Mississippi it is said to prevail throughout the year, except during two months about the winter solstice, which is the reason why the temperature of this country is three degrees warmer than that of the Atlantic coast, though only separated by the Alleghany mountains. Mr Volney found that this prevailing current of wind follows the windings of the Ohio, and always preserves itself unbroken in a breadth of twelve or fifteen miles, as far as Kentucky, where there is abundant rain and moisture, while the rest of the country is parched with droughts, which sometimes continue for three months. The dreadful hurricanes, so destructive to human industry, are produced by currents of cold winds rushing from the north along the Atlantic coast, and mingling with the warm winds produced by the gulf-stream. That which traversed the continent from Boston to Florida in 1757, was not felt at the former place till several hours after its commencement at the latter, as observed by Dr Franklin; but that which desolated the southern coast in September 1804, proceeded from the opposite or windward direction. * The north-east wind, crossing a great extent of sea, brings cold and moisture on all the Atlantic coast. Proceeding southwardly, however, its effects are * See Mease's Geological Account of the United States, p. Medical Repository: Hex. 1, Vol. V. and Hex. 11, 100. Vol. II. p. 354. found to diminish. Its course is, in some measure, directed by that of the mountains; and the space over which it blows is sometimes marked by the snow which it deposits. On the 14th of February 1798, more than forty inches fell, during the prevalence of this wind, at and around the city of Norfolk, while at the distance of twenty-five miles in the interior, when the wind, at the same time, blew nearly in a north-west direction, there was neither snow nor rain. The prevalence of the north-east wind on the Atlantic coast, at the period of the vernal equinox, produces effects very injurious to vegetation, which, bursting forth in the months of January or February, is destroyed by the return of frost. It is also very injurious to provisions of flesh meat reserved for winter use; and its effects on the human body are felt by all. The violent hurricanes so dangerous to seamen, which take place about the vernal and autumnal equinox, in the Bay of Chesapeake, and near the mouth of the Hudson and Delaware rivers, are produced by this annoying current. The winds also from the south and east, which raise the temperature to 54 or 58 degrees, create so rapid a dissolution of the snow, that it melts as if under the action of steam, and the temperature becomes similar to that of spring. De Poutrincourt states, that, after his arrival in America, the winter was so mild, that he and his party amused themselves" in singing mu "sic on the river Equille, and dining merrily in "the sunshine, and yet the winters of 1607 and "1608 were so severe that many Indians per“ished.” * A great difference exists between the climate of the Atlantic coast and that of the Great Basin, or valley of the Ohio and Mississippi. This was first pointed out by Mr Jefferson in his well known work "Notes on Virginia." Proceeding, says he, in the same parallel of latitude westwardly, the climate becomes colder, (as in advancing northwardly,) till we arrive at the summit of the Alleghany chain; but descending thence to the river Mississippi, the increase of temperature at any given parallel is equal to what would be gained by advancing three degrees of latitude farther south on the Atlantic coast. As a proof of this it is remarked, that on the Mississippi Catalpa, trees grow spontaneously as far as the 37th degree of latitude, and reeds, or canes, to the 38th, though neither of these are found at the corresponding latitudes on the Atlantic coast. It has been observed too, that on the Scioto river, at the 39th parallel, parroquets remain during the winter season; and that, in the summer of 1799, when the thermometer was at 90°, at Monticallo, (the author's place of cia. See the relation of his voyage in the history of Nova Fran |