THE ANNUAL MEETING. 163 



several localities. Now, drawing a line, on a map, through all the localities 

 which have the same extreme minimum, we have an isothermal chart for ex- 

 treme minima. Such a chart I present before you on an enlarged scale. Its 

 features are similar to the chart of mean minima, but still more pronounced. 

 By a glance at this chart, we percieve that the lowest point reached at Macki- 

 nac, in 28 years, is but two degrees lower than the extreme minimum of St. 

 Louis. Extreme weather at Chicago is twelve degrees colder than at New 

 Buffalo. The lowest extreme of Milwaukee is fourteen degrees below the 

 extreme minimum of Grand Haven ; while the extreme of Fort Howard is 

 twenty degrees below that of Northport. In general, while the mean minimum 

 along the west side of lake Michigan is -16°, that along the east side is -6° ; while 

 the extreme minimum on the west side is -22° to -30°, that of the east side is -10° 

 to -16°, as far north as Little Traverse Bay. On that day of memorable cold, 

 Jan. 1, 1864, the thermometer sauk to -30° at Milwaukee, but only reached -14° 

 at Northport and Traverse City. At the same time it was -29° at Chicago and 

 -20° at Kalamazoo. It sank to -24° at St. Louis and -16° at Memphis, Tennessee. 

 This point was two degrees colder than Northport, 640 miles further north in a 

 direct line. The isotherm of -24° bends from the latitude of Alpena through 

 Grand Rapids, Battle Creek and Coldwater, and thence to St. Louis, 452 miles 

 further south. Cincinnati is reported to have an extreme minimum of -29°, a 

 degree of cold not known in our peninsula, and but little exceeded along the 

 south shore of Lake Superior. At Ann Arbor, the lowest point reached in 28 

 years, according to my own observations, is -24°. The area of this extreme 

 minimum seems to cover all the central portion of the peninsula east of Grand 

 Rapids, west of Bay City and south of Otsego Lake, and stretches southward 

 into central Kentucky. Compared with Traverse City, the extreme minimum 

 of Hazlewood, Minn., is 22° lower; that of St. Johnsbury, Vt., 28° lower; 

 that of Gardiner, Me., within 30 miles of ocean, 19° lower; and of Montreal, 

 P. Q., 26° lower. 



These illustrations of the general principles announced must suffice for the 

 present. This is not an occasion for entering into greater detail. The details 

 must be conned over deliberately, in the presence of the charts which represent 

 them graphically. For this purpose, I must refer you to the papers whose 

 titles have already been cited. Better and more satisfactory still would be the 

 study of the full tables of mean and extreme results on which these discussions 

 have been based. Meantime, I hope I have made it clear that in our excep- 

 tional climate, we possess a natural resource which ought to be studied both by 

 the public and the private citizen, and which, utilized to the fullest extent, will 

 enable us to produce the crops suited to the lower Ohio valley, with a more 

 certain exemption from unseasonable frosts than is enjoyed by Kentucky, Mis- 

 souri, northern Texas, or the much-coveted Indian Territory. 



The meeting now adjourned for the night. 



Wednesday Morning. 



The convention was called to order by the President at an early hour. 

 Prayer was offered by Dr. Lock wood, followed by music rendered by Mr. 

 Nathan White and family. 



Mr. Cottrell moved that a committee of five be appointed by the chair to 

 nominate to the convention at the proper time a list of officers for the ensuing 

 year. Carried. 



