FIFTEENTH ORDINARY MEETING, 205 
1868', the mean temperature was 80° with an average daily maxi- 
muin of 93° in the shade. In Toronto the mean of the same month 
was 75°.8, with a mean daily maximum of only 85°.4. These con- 
trasts sufficiently illustrate the effect of the different situation of the 
two cities in regard to the water of Lake Ontario. 
Along the south shore of Lake Ontario, eastward to Niagara, 
the general features of the climate of the belt of land referred to, 
resemble those of Hamilton, though the thermometer does not fall 
so low at night as in that city. The summer heats are intense, and 
temperatures above 70° have even been recorded in mid-winter. The 
season is, over much of the district, longer than at Hamilton, where 
the average period between the last fall of the temperature in spring 
to 32°, and the first descent in autumn to the freezing point, was for 
three years (1878-80), 186 days. The measure of protection afforded 
by Lake Ontario from the winds from northerly points of the com- 
pass increases, and the mean temperature of winter rises. Lake Erie 
also affords a measure of protection against the cold which in winters 
unusually severe in the Western States sometimes accompanies south- 
westerly winds. At Niagara the mean of winter is several degrees 
higher than at Hamilton, and nearly as high as at New York, 
and the average minimum of the year is little, if at all, below 
zero. The heat and duration of summer and the comparative mild- 
ness of winter make the district peculiarly well adapted to fruit 
growing. ‘The peach-orchard area of the district is very large, and 
vineyards averaging four to five tons of grapes to the acre are 
numerous. The sweet potato and the peanut flourish in a degree 
unsurpassed in any other district in the province. The mulberry 
grows luxuriantly. The pseudo-papaw, and the tulip tree, Lirio- 
dendron tulipfera, grow wild in the woods and attain large propor- 
tions. At Niagara the writer has found fig-trees heavily laden with 
fruit, growing in the open air with but little winter protection ; and 
the soft-shelled almond, though of course but little cultivated, with 
slight winter protection, produces fruit equal to that of the common 
almond of commerce. 
The north shore of Lake Erie, like the north shore of Lake Ontario, 
and for similar reasons, is marked by a tendency to the avoidance of 
great extremes of heat, though owing to latitude and the shallowness, 
and therefore greater warmth, of the water, the hot extremes of the 
summer months, and the mean temperature are higher than on the 
