206 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 
north shore of Ontario. In exceptionally severe winters, ice forms 
to a greater extent on the bays and indentations of Lake Erie than 
along the Lake Ontario coast, and though the mean temperature on 
the north shore of Erie is higher than on the same shore of Ontario, 
the winter maximum in such seasons is no greater than at Toronto. 
The snow of winter is light, and usually lies but a short time, even 
in winters when around Buffalo the depth is great and the sleighing 
of long duration. 
The eastern shore of Lake Huron has a climate differing in several 
important particulars from the Canadian shores of Lakes Erie and 
Ontario, and illustrating more than these lakes the peculiar effect of 
a large body of water interposed against the prevailing westerly 
winds. The winters are nearly two degrees warmer than at Toronto, 
and are as mild as those of Hamilton, as free from cold extremes as at 
Niagara, and from warm extremes as at Toronto, yet the moisture of 
the lake winds makes the sensible cold appear greater than in the in- 
terior or in the Niagara District. Spring is retarded by the lake in- 
fluence, and the mean of that season at Goderich is no higher than at 
Toronto ; but on the other hand the autumn is several degrees 
warmer : summer is as cool as at Toronto, and comparatively free 
from very high temperatures. Goderich, lat. 43° 25’; altitude, 728 
feet, has a mean temperature for the year a little higher than Toronto. 
Zero temperatures, and temperatures above 90° are rare; and the 
contrast in this respect with the Michigan shore opposite, is very 
marked. The climate is one of the most equable of the whole lake 
region, and surpasses in this respect almost every other district in the 
middle latitudes of the continent. The peach grows far north, and 
even on the Georgian Bay. Towards the southern part ef the dis- 
trict, peach-growing is an important industry. Owing to the moisture 
of the lake winds, this shore is not so well adapted to the vine as the 
ordinary or low levels of peninsular Ontario. The rainfall and snow- 
fall are both heavy, for to the rainfall brought by cyclonic areas, there 
is added the moisture gathered by westerly winds from the lake. 
The north-westerly winds, normally intensely dry, gather a large 
amount of moisture from the lake, and in winter when the land is 
chilled, this moisture is precipitated in snow flurries to a considerable 
depth. The interior of peninsular Ontario varies greatly in elevation, 
rising slowly and gradually from Lake Erie ; more rapidly from Lake 
Huron and still more abruptly from the Georgian Bay, up to the 
