110 
INTRODUCTION. 
Climate. In a territory so extensive as that em- 
braced within the United States, there is ample oppor- 
tunity to test the effect of climate ; and the topograph- 
ical character of the country aids in defining the 
bounds of this influence, and in enabling us the more 
readily to appreciate its amount. It may be said, in 
general, that the country presents a great diversity of 
cliinate, varying from that of the northern district, 
where frost and snow prevail nearly six months in the 
year, and the alternations of temperature are rapid and 
excessive, the extreme range of the thermometer ex- 
ceeding 130° of Fahrenheit, to that of peninsular Florida, 
where the seasons blend imperceptibly with each other, 
vegetation is never dormant, and flowers succeed each 
other without interval. 
The mean summer and winter temperature of the two 
most northern and the two most southern military posts, 
the last of these being an insular one, together with that 
of the most south-western post, taken from Dr. Forry's 
work, will illustrate the subject, and show that we have 
within our limits a range of climate as excessive in its 
extremes as those of Moscow and of Cairo. 
PLACES. 
N. 
Int. 
w. 
lOD. 
MEAN TEMPERATT T.C. 
Extremes 
-Annual 
Hui. 
Annual. 
Summer. 
Winter. 
Difference. 
mum. 
deg. 
mum. 
deg. 
deg. in. 
deg. m. 
leg. m. 
deg. m. 
■ leg. m. 
deg. m. 
deg. 
Fort Brady, Wis. 
16 39 81 52 
41 39 
63 IS 
21 07 
42 11 
W 
-23 
110 
Houlton, Me. 
46 10 67 50 
11 2] 
62 93 
16 7 1 
49 16 
94 
-24 
US 
Tampa Bay, E. F. 
27 57 82 35 
73 42 
81 25 
64 7''' 
16 49 
92 
35 
57 
Key West, E. F. 
24 33 
si 52 
76 09 
81 39 
7(1 05 
11 34 
89 
52 
37 
Fort .Tessup, La. 
31 30 
93 47 
68 03 
82 48 
07 99 
29 29 
96 
19 
77 
