28 



From the foregoing table, it will be seen that the highest temperature in No- 

 vember, among the stations from which registers have been received, (excepting 

 South Carolina and Aspinwall,) was 81 at Pittsburg, Penn. ; and next to this 

 were the two stations in Missouri, being 77 at Canton and 78 at Harrisouville. 

 The lowest temperature, 15 degrees below zero, was at Fontenelle, Nebraska. 

 The greatest range of temperature at any one station during the mouth was 82 

 degrees, at Canton, Missouri ; and the least (excepting Aspinwall) was 35, in 

 the city of New York. At Canton the thermometer rose 62 degrees from 7 a. m. 

 of the 10th, to 2 p. m. the next day. 



The lowest temperature was at the end of the month. In the table the mini- 

 mum is marked on the 28th and 29th in the States west of Indiana, and thence 

 eastwardly on the 30th. The actual minimum, however, of this depression of 

 temperature at many of the eastern stations, as was the case at Washington, 

 probably occurred, not on the 30th of November, but on the following day, and 

 therefore does not come in the table for November ; nor will it appear in the 

 table for December, because, as the season of cold is advancing, lower tempera- 

 tures will be recorded during that month. Tiius it happens that when the de- 

 pression which gives the lowest temperature occurs at the close of a month, the 

 usual tables of maxima and minima necessarily show a somewhat lower mini- 

 mum for the Avestern States, as compared with the eastern, than when it begins 

 early enough in the month to bring its minima at all the stations in the same 

 table. 



It may also be worth a passing remark, that the maxima and minima are influ- 

 enced somewhat by the time of day at which they occur. For if the cause 

 (whatever it may be) which produces an unusually high temperature attains its 

 greatest influence about sunrise, its effect will be less perceptible on the maxi- 

 mum of the day than if it occun-ed at 2 or 3 p. m., or at the hours when the 

 heat of the day is generally the greatest. And so also with regard to the mini- 

 mum. Thus at Welshfield, Ohio, Fort Madison, Iowa, Ottowa, Illinois, and 

 several other places, the maximum of November occurred at 9 p. m. ; and 

 at Clarcmont, N. H., the minimum (omitting the last day of the month) 

 was at 2 p. m. on the 10th. It is evident that the first stations would have 

 showed a higher temperature, and the last a lower, on the days named, if the 

 causes which produced those extremes had operated to their full extent a few 

 hours earlier in each case, or in conjunction with the ordinary extremes of the 

 day. 



The beginning and progress of the cold at the end of November is very dis- 

 tinctly marked in the hourly observations kept at the Smithsonian Institution. 

 From these it appears that during the day and night of Saturday, the 28th, (when 

 the cold had descended to the minimum in ^linnesota,) the temperature was rising, 

 and at 3 o'clock on the morning of Sunday it stood at 52 degrees, which was 

 higher than it had been at any time for a week previous. The Avind, which 

 had been from the south since the 26th, now changed to northwest, and the tem- 

 perature began to fall, descending to 43.^ :it 2 p. m. of Sunday, 28 at 2 p. m. 

 on Monday the 30th, and 21 at midnight, at which point it remained stationary 

 till 7 a. m. the next morning, December 1, when it began slowly to rise again. 

 The wind, previous to the rise, changed to the south. The barometer rose 

 during tbe fall of temperature, and reached its highest point, 30.542, at 10 a.m., 

 December 1. Rain fell on the 28th from 6 J a. m. to 2 p. ra. 



COLD ABOUT THK TENTH OF NOVEMBER. 



About the 10th of the month a low temperature prevailed at all the stations ; 

 being, at a large number of Lhem, the lowest of the month except during the 

 last few days. At some places in the middle and eastern States, a lower tem- 

 perature occurred at 7 a. m. of the 2d than at this period, hnt not a lower daily 



