FIFTEENTH ORDINARY MEETING. 209 
of the great lakes. To the south at no great distance is Lake Erie 
affording only a slight protection against the warmth of the south 
wind in winter. But against the cold in winter of westerly and 
north-westerly winds there is no shelter except such as the distant 
Lakes Michigan and Superior supply, and against the warmth gener- 
ally, and in some winters the excessive cold, of the south-west wind 
there is little or no protection. Lake St. Clair is shallow, and in 
severe winters freezes over, and loses its protective influence, and 
both it and the very shallow westerly end of Lake Erie become 
in summer greatly heated, and not only lose the protective influence 
against extreme heat which lake-water generally exercises, but even 
at times, and especially in autumn, increase the heat. The extreme 
south-west has therefore a climate, on the average of the year warmer 
than almost any other part of the Province, but more variable also 
than most of peninsular Ontario. 
The winter mean is the same as that of Hamilton, but with 
monthly extremes of heat and cold greater than in that city. The 
average yearly minimum is about the same as at Toronto. Owing to 
the great differences in the temperature of different winters in the 
Western and South-Western States, and the consequently great differ- 
ences in the temperature of south-westerly winds in different winters, 
the temperature of the Windsor winters differs very much. In 
eight years (1874-81) the coldest January was 14°.7 which is lower 
than any January in the same period at Hamilton or Toronto, or 
eighty miles northward at Goderich. The warmest January on the 
other hand was 36°.2, or considerably higher than any at Toronto or 
Hamilton. December means varied from 18°7 to 38°9 ; March from 
26°.6 to 41°.7 ; April from 37°.9 to 54°.2. Though the midsummer 
months show little difference in their mean temperature in different 
years, October means ranged from 46°.6 to 58°.9 ; May from 57°.2 
to 65°.5, and September from 59°.0 to 72°.2; the last higher than 
any Toronto July in the same period. 
The mean of the summer months is almost the same at Windsor as 
at Hamilton. In autumn, with the exception of the month of 
October, the two places are alike in mean temperature. It is the 
temperature of the spring and early summer that makes the mean of 
the year at Windsor (48°49) one degree warmer than the annual mean 
at Hamilton. April at Hamilton has a mean of 42°.5 ; at Windsor 
45°.25; in May the figures are respectively 57°.7 and 60°.8; in 
