1-^260^ 



during the Summer of 1825. 121 



2. Temperature at Williams College during the late excessively 



hot weatlier. 



The mean temperature of the month is 74*95, which is a httle 

 less than that of July, 1820. The temperature was at no time 

 in that year so high as that given above. The mean temperature 

 of the month of July for the last nine years is 69*61, and for the 

 last ten years including this July, is only 70* 14. This shows the 

 excessive heat of the late month of July. 



There were some hot days in June, but the temperature was 

 not above 96° in the hottest part of the day. 



The thermometer is suspended six feet from the ground on the 

 north side of a house, exposed to a free circulation of the air, 

 but protected from all reflected heat. 



Aug. 22. Observed three spots upon the sun — two large and 

 black. 



'Note. — After these tables, follow some extracts from United 

 States newspapers, from which it appears, that in some days in 

 the course of the same month (July, 1825), the thermometer 

 ranged at Hartford, in Connecticut, from 96° to 102° in the 

 shade ; at Salem, Massachusetts, it reached 104° ; at a village 

 in Yates' County, N.Y. 106°; at Wiscasset, Maine, 107°; and 

 in a multitude of other places, the temperature was nearly as 

 high about the same period. An article dated New York, 

 July 25, says, " The thermometer, we believe, for the last two 

 days, has scarcely varied during the day, from 95° in the shade, 

 and the mercury has not fallen much in the night season. The 

 ravages of death, yesterday, were truly melancholy. Twenty- 

 five inquests were held upon the bodies of persons who came to 

 their death by means of the heat, or by drinking cold water ; 

 and there have been several cases to-day — some before eight 

 o'clock this morning. It seems to do no good for the press to 

 admonish the public upon this subject; and those who return 

 from the burial of friends, with a strange fatality, drink and die 

 in a few minutes afterwards. So true is it that *all men think 

 all mortal but themselves.' 



