CLIMATE, &C., OF THE SOUTH SHOKE OF LAKE ERIE. 



Coiiiinon oLsoi'vations, as well as tho more sure tost, the raiii-jxaiii;^', sliow that 

 larger ainuunt.s uf vajior from the lake are carried south, comlensod in the furin of rain 

 and snow, than fall iu this vicinity. 



Durin" winter, comparatively little snow falls, and still less accumulates liere, though 

 it may be abundant on the higher grounds, thirty or forty miles in the interior. 



This region is also not so frequently favored with showers in summer, as the central 

 portion of the State. Long and severe drouths often prevail, but they are in part 

 counteracted by moisture in tho atmosphere. This quality sustains vegetation, and also 

 imparts a freshness to the atmosphere during the hottest days of summer, very observ- 

 able on approaching the lake from the interior. During that season it is peculiarly pleas- 

 ant and invigorating to invalids, and equally harrassing to them during the spring season. 



The indirrenous vegetation of this vicinity is of rather a southern type — shown by 

 the absence, in a great measure, of evergreens, and the occurrence of more southern 

 genera, as the Cercis, Ilex, .^sculus, Nelumbiura, Gleditschia, Magnolia, &c. Eliott's 

 Botany of South Carolina and Georgia has been found to be a convenient hand-book 

 for investigating our flora. On the other hand, strange hyperboi-ean plants are 

 frequently found, •which have been washed down from the for Northwest, through the 

 chain of great lakes. 



Many of our birds are species whose most northern ranges of migration have been 

 assigned many degrees south of this, by ornithologists. The hooded, Kentucky, yel- 

 low-throated-wood, coerulean, and prairie warblers, annually rear their young in this 

 vicinity. Trail's fly-catcher, and the piping plover, have been repeatedly seen here, 

 and the purple ibis is an occasional visitor. The list might be greatly extended. 



Great numbers of the Sylvicolje semi-annually congregate here, during their migra- 

 tions, and seem to make it a resting-place, both before and after passing the lake. 

 More northern species occasionally resort here during winter for the purpose of obtain- 

 ing food, or are driven here by storms ; such are the pine-gro§beak, and the white 

 owl. The Bohemian wax-wing visits us almost every winter, and sometimes in large 

 flocks. The pinefinch is described, by some ornithologists, as resorting to the United 

 States only at long intervals, and during winter. It visits our gardens and grounds in 

 numerous flocks every season, early in July, and remains here till the ensuing spring. 

 The young, at their first appearance, still retain much down about their plumage, and 

 cannot have been long absent from their nests. The food of these birds is Aphides 

 during summer, and at other times small seeds of grapes, and other vegetables. 



The insect tribes show still more strikingly southern aflSnities. The Papilio Cret- 

 phontes, figured and described by Boisduval and Le Conte, as the Papilio Thoas, 

 has been repeatedly taken here : though it has been considered as exclusively southern 

 in its resorts. In the South, the larva feeds on the orange and lemon ; here. Major 

 Le Coxte informs me, it lives on the Ilercules-club. 



The Papilio Ajax and Papilio Marcellus have also been described as southern 

 insects ; and the late Mr. Doubledat located the former exclusively in Florida, and 

 fixed the most northern limit of the latter in Virginia. Still they are common at this 

 and subsist in the larva state, on the pa^^'paw. An undescribed species of 



