A TRIP TO CUBA AND THE SOUTHERX STATES. 301 



THERMOMETER. 



Average of June 86° 



" " July 88iO 



" " August 88JO 



" " September 85*0 



" " October 830 



" " November 81° 



" " December 80° 



" " January, 1857 750 



" " February, " 750 



" " March " 80O 



In January and February no fire was required, and Americans wintering there 

 wore nothing but thin clotliing. 



The equability of the above averages of the thermometer at noon, so different 

 from our own, will strike every one. Rarely does the record show the height to 

 exceed 90° till after the first of June, and then it reaches above that height more 

 rarely than with us, and the changes during the intervals from noon to noon, are 

 rarely even great enough to call for a change of clothes. 



As a winter residence, and as an easy means of escaping the worst periods of 

 our northern colds, Cuba presents great attractions, and will soon be a necessity 

 to the wealthy and the invalid. 



An American Boarding- House in the Country In connection with this subject, 



it may be well to remark here, that it is a great object to visitors to reside in the 

 interior, and thus have an opportunity of visiting familiarly the sugar and coffee 

 estates, and examining the trees and cultivation. All can scarcely hope for intro- 

 ductions to resident country families where they could be thus domesticated, and, if 

 they could, the bar of language would mostly prove a great drawback. To obviate 

 this difficulty, Mr. L. Monson, an American, has opened a country boarding- 

 house near the El Carolina station of the Matanzas Railroad, and, to be brief, his 

 is the Carolina House, purjiorting to be kept in American fashion. The dwelling 

 was framed in the United States, and has glass windows, in our fashion, and the 

 spot was formerly a coffee plantation ; has good fruit-trees, shady avenues, and 

 much to admire in the way of vegetation and scenery. If Mr. Monson succeeds 

 in getting a good housekeeper and a gardener, as he intends to do, this will be a 

 most desirable winter residence. It is near a post-office, riding-horses are at com- 

 mand, and the distance from Havana not an objection. 



The Rainy Season. — Most persons who read of "the rainy season" in the 

 tropics, have probably an erroneous opinion of the duration of the showers. 

 Residents in Cuba assure us that the expression is a misnomer as we understand 

 it, at least, and that it is used only in contradistinction to the season of little or 

 no rain, when vegetation is sustained by the dampness of the air. Our record, 

 carefully kept by Mr. Monson, includes the number of showers for the six months, 

 embracing from July 1 to December 23, with the assurance that these rains were 

 of brief duration generally, commencing about noon, and followed by a bright 

 sunshine nearly always: — 



July, 1856 . Thirteen showers of an average of half an hour. 



August, " . Showers on ten days. 



September, " . " " eighteen days. 



October, " . " " seventeen days. 



November, " . " " four days. 



December 2 to the 23d, " . Light showers. 



An uncommon drought then set in ; such being rarely known, visitors to the 

 island the past winter saw its vegetation to a disadvantage, beautiful as it wa 



