202 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 
to be between three and four weeks ; in some winters there has been 
no sleighing whatever. An examination which I have made of the 
records of Toronto observatory for the past thirty Christmas days 
shows that only on four of these holidays, or little more than one in 
eight, has there been suflicient snow to permit the running of sledges, 
and on thirteen occasions the ground was bare. The interposition of 
the lake water against hot winds from southerly points of the com- 
pass greatly tends to prevent extremes of heat. The summer of 
Toronto is cooler than that of Montreal, the Ottawa Valley, and parts 
of the interior to the north, north-east and west of the city, and as cool 
as the eastern shore of Lake Huron. The mean temperature of July 
for the eight year period cited is 69°.01—which is little more than 
three degrees warmer than Paris, France, over five degrees farther 
north ; and is less than two degrees for the same period warmer than 
Winnipeg, where though the latitude is higher by 6} degrees, full 
continental influences prevail. The freedom from warm extremes 
both winter and summer is more noticeable. The average maximum 
of January is only 46°.25. The absolute maximum (Dec. 31, 1875) 
of mid-winter in eight years was only 61°, while that of Galt, 56 
miles westward and 520 fees higher, was 66°; that of Hamilton, +2 
miles distant, but at the west end of the lake, 71°, and that of the 
Niagara district, 40 miles distant, nearly 80° in the shade. The 
average maximum of the year is only 91°.5 ; that of Hamilton is 96°.9, 
while over the Lake Erie district and over most of the inland parts 
of the Province as far as the Upper Ottawa, the average maximum 
isin most localities as high as 95°. The absolute maximum in 
twenty years past is only 95°.4. At Ottawa and even in Muskoka it 
has exceeded 100°, wile 2t Hamilton it has reached 106°.3 in the 
shade. It is interesting to note in passing, that moderate as is the 
annual maximum at Toronto as compared with other localities in 
the Province, it is a little higher than at Charleston, South Carolina. 
At Toronto, as, more or less, along the shores of the Great Lakes, 
a lake breeze by day and a land breeze by night, blow during hot, 
calm weather. These breezes usually do not affect the climate for 
more than a few miles from the shore. Inland, notwithstanding the 
increased elevation, the temperature is higher in the day time during 
the summer months than it is at Toronto. 
Hamilton, only forty-two miles distant from Toronto, and only 
twenty-three minutes further south, has a much warmer climate, and 
