NEW ENGLAND CLIMATE. 147 



METEOROLOGICAL KESEARCH. 



The following communication has been made to the Board of 

 Agriculture on the Climate of New England. An important 

 point in inquiries of this nature is, whether the periodical returns 

 of extreme cold are not less frequent now, or, in other words, 

 whether the cycles of change have not been materially lengthen- 

 ed. It is believed by many scientific men, and thought to be 

 strikingly corroborated by observation, that they have. This 

 question, it will be seen, did not come within the range of the 

 writer's investigation. The recurrence of what is called the 

 " January thaw " is, it is thought, far more irregular now than 

 formerly, while the phenomena of the Aurora Borealis appear 

 far more frequently. The appearance of these phenomena was 

 comparatively rare many years ago. Whether they are con- 

 nected with any change of climate is not yet fully known. The 

 paper is so interesting and valuable that it is given entire : — 



REMARKS ON THE CLIMATE OF NEW ENGLAND. 



BY J. C. GRAY. 



It has been a general, and is perhaps still a prevailing im- 

 pression among the inhabitants of New England, that our climate 

 is much warmer now than two hundred years since. This 

 position has been distinctly assumed by some of our best histo- 

 rians and naturalists, and many ingenious reasons have been 

 given for the change. The explanation which seems to have 

 met with most favor is that which ascribes the alleged softening 

 of the winter's cold to the clearing away of large tracts of for- 

 est trees. It is believed, however, that the position itself may 

 be fairly called in question, and that philosophers, by a mistake 

 not unprecedented in the observers of natural phenomena, have 

 employed themselves much more diligently in accounting for a 

 striking phenomenon which they have assumed to exist, than in 

 collecting precise evidence to determine the fact of such exist- 

 ence. Much less of this evidence exists than could be wished, 



