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The climate of Michigan is hotter in summer, and averages milder 

 in winter, than would be expected from its position, Detroit being in lat- 

 itude 42 deg. 19 m. 18 sec, and longitude 82 deg., 68 m.; but its 

 almost insular position, and the large bodies of water which surround 

 it, produce a marked effect. There is much less snow, and the win- 

 ters are shorter and more irregular than in the same latitude in Western 

 New York. The western coast appears to have a colder climate and 

 more snow than the eastern, probably owing to the unwooded prairies 

 of "Wisconsin, and the prevailing winds being west and northwest. 



From an early period, a periodical rise and fall of water in the lakes 

 has been observed. Formerly the notion prevailed that this was owing 

 to a tide which ebbed and flowed each seven years; but more modern 

 observations attribute it to " a successive series of cold and rnoist years, 

 and a series of warm and dry ones, mutually following each other;" 

 and considering that a surface of 248,755 square miles of land, besides 

 that of the lakes, drains into the St. Lawrence, this is probably the true 

 explanation. But correct meteorological observations have not yet been 

 made for a sufScient length of time to decide the question. 



Taken altogether, Michigan enjoys an unusually dry and agreeable 

 climate. On the Detroit River, winter rarely sets in before the end of 

 December, and is passed by the beginning to the end of March. In- 

 stances have occurred during the last fifteen years, when the ground 

 could be plowed, and steamboats have passed from Detroit to Buffalo, 

 every month in the year. The spring is the most unpleasant and 

 changeable season. The falls are usually very beautiful, dry and cloud- 

 less. It is, however, remarked by old residents, that a decided change 

 in the length and severity of the springs has taken place during the 

 last half dozen years. The same belief (whether just or unjust) is en- 

 tertained in New York and Pennsylvania. 



As regards health, Michigan will compare favorably with any other 

 western State. Till very lately, the only serious diseases known were 

 ague, generally of a mild character, and lung fever (bilious inflamma- 

 tion of lungs) in winter. Once or twice, congestive fever has proved 

 epidemic in a few localities; and, occasionally, on the lake shore, black 

 tongue, with other forms of erysipelas, appears in winter and spring. 

 The diseases of the eastern States seem, however, to be gradually creep- 

 ing in ; and in Detroit, we have cases of small-pox, scarlet fever, and 



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