ASTRONOMY AND METEOROLOGY. 373 



an amount of three-hundred and sixty thousand cubic miles of 

 water raised in vapor 'from the ocean alone. 



OBSERVATIONS ON THE CLIMATE, FLORA AND FAUNA OF THE 



SOUTH SHORE OF LAKE ERIE. 



SOME interesting observations on the climate, flora, and fauna of the 

 south shore of Lake Erie, have recently been published by Dr. J. P. 

 Kirkland, of Cleveland, Ohio. They seem conclusively to show that a 

 section of country on the lake shore, in the vicinity of Cleveland, has 

 a decidedly southern character, as regards its climate, flora and fauna. 

 At this point, during ten years of observation, the thermometer has in 

 no instance fallen so low, as at places situated 120 to 150 miles to the 

 south. The first severe frosts of autumn, which generally occur 

 throughout Northern Ohio about the 25th of September, rarely take 

 place at Cleveland before the 25th of October, and sometimes 

 not until late in November. If the warm season upon the lake shore 

 is protracted, the spring at the same point is somewhat later. In the 

 middle and southern sections of Ohio, spring sets in during the month 

 of March perhaps earlier. The warm winds blowing up the vallies 

 of the Mississippi and Ohio, in conjunction with other causes, bring 

 forth vegetation earlier ; but cold weather and disastrous frosts too 

 often follow. While these changes are progressing in those parts of 

 the State, winter will remain steadfast on the lake shore. Little 

 advancement will be made by spring so long as any considerable 

 bodies of ice float upon the lake, even as low down as Buffalo. No 

 sooner do they disappear, than spring sets in with reality, and vegeta- 

 tion puts forth with subarctic rapidity. 



The lake rapidly imbibing heat at this season, becomes a safeguard 

 against any subsequent vernal frost. The mode by which it exerts 

 its influence, does not appear to be uniformely the same at different 

 times. In some instances, on the approach of a cold night, the warm 

 emanations from the lake condensing may give off caloric, and obscure 

 the atmosphere with haze, mist, or clouds, when no frost will occur. 

 Under circumstances apparantly similar, on the approach of a cold 

 night, neither haze, mist, nor clouds may form, but a stiff" breeze 

 springs up, and the stars become unusually brilliant. The ther- 

 mometer vacillates between 32 and 38, rising with the gusts of wind 

 and falling during the intervals of calm. Then no frost will appear. 

 Again, none of those modifying causes may intervene, but the temper- 

 ature may fall below freezing point, ice form on the surface of water, 

 and the expanded fruit leaves and blossoms congeal. Under such 

 circumstances, the first rays of the rising sun, the next morning, will 

 be arrested by haze, which will soon thicken, and before noon a warm 

 rain will probably fall. The frost will be abstracted so gradually from 

 frozen vegetation as not to impair its vitality. 



In autumn this great body of water begins to part with its warmth 

 to the colder incumbent atmosphere, and the process continues during 

 the winter. While its progress is most rapid, strong southerly winds 



