4S GENERAL REMARKS, &C. 



DECEMBER. 



The winter now being set in, the weather becomes variable, 

 and a considerable quantity of rain generally falls in the course 

 of the month. This year upon the whole has yielded less rain 

 than the year 1799 and the present month has produced less 

 than the same month of the last year by 2.78 inches. This 

 month has been particularly remarkable for a degree of cold 

 hitherto unexampled in the history of this country — on the 

 morning of the 12th. the thermometer was found sunken to 

 + 1 2°; on that day it did not rise above the freezing point, and 

 next morning was at 17°— on that day it rose to 49°; and both 

 before and after was up to 72* — Cows begin to calve about 

 the commencement of the month and continue calving for 3 

 or 4 months. Mares are generally a month later hi bringing 

 their young. 



GENERAL REMARKS respecting the winds, weather, Ke. 



IT is with us a general remark, that of late years the sum- 

 mers have become hotter and the winters colder than formerly. 

 Orange trees and other tender exotics have suffered much 

 more in the neighbourhood of New Orleans within these 4 or 

 5 years than before that period ; the sugar cane also has been 

 so much injured by the severity of the frosts of the two last 

 winters, as greatly to discourage the planters, whose crops, in 

 many instances, have fallen to one third or less of their expec- 

 tations. In former years I have observed the mercury of the 

 thermometer not to fall lower than 26 or 27°, but for a few 

 years past, it has generally once or twice in the winter fallen 

 as low as from 17 to 20°. and on the 12th. of December 1800 

 as above noticed it was found sunken to 12°. which has 

 hitherto no parrallel in this climate, indicating a degree of 

 cold which in any country would be considered considerable, 

 and probably may never be again produced by natural means 

 in lat. 3U?. 



