914 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 
October averages 56°.4, nearly ten degrees warmer than at Toronto, 
and quite as warm as in the Ohio Valley. November prolongs the 
balmy, hazy weather which persists here for months, and it is not till 
about the 12th of the month that the first hoar frost of the season 
usually occurs on the warmer soils of the island. 
In winter sleighing is rare. The rainfall in the warmer months is 
comparatively light, owing to the high temperature above the shal- 
low surrounding waters checking condensation. 
The mean period in which the mercury does not fall to 36°—the 
average point at which hoar frost here occurs—is nearly seven months 
in length, or quite as long as at Memphis, Tennessee, and much longer 
than throughout most of Ohio and Indiana. It extends from April 
14th to Nov. 12th. The great length of the season, combined with the 
long steady heat admits of the full maturing of cotton, which at one 
Pelee farm visited by the writer, has been grown for many years 
without any special care either to secure protection or early 
maturity. Climatic conditious are more favorable to the cultiva- 
tion of the Catawba grape on Pelee and adjacent islands than in any 
other part of America. Including the mainland on both sides of the 
lake, this district is the most famous wine district on the continent, 
with the exception of a small area in California, where however the 
yield per acre is not greater than here. On the islands alone, millions 
of gallons of wine are produced, and the area in vineyards can be | 
greatly extended. The grape crop is never injured by frosts, and 
conditions in regard to moisture are more favourable to avoidance of 
loss through mildew than in the Ohio Valley, which formerly was the 
chief centre on this continent of the production of Catawba wine. 
To find European parallels to the various climates of Ontario which 
have been described, would be no easy task Individual districts 
will find winter parallels in the Crimea, on the banks of the Danube, 
and at Berlin on the one hand, and on the other at St. Petersburg, 
Moscow, Astrachan and in Central Russia. The summers of parts of 
the Province are paralleled in those of Lisbon, Northern Spain and 
Italy, Southern France, the lower Danube and Constantinople, or in 
the cool summers of Paris and Berlin. The Ottawa Valley and the 
central and inland parts ot the Province of Ontario have summers 
like those of Vienna. Toronto at any season of the year differs but. 
little in temperature from Bucharest. The month of July at Hamil- 
ton and Windsor is almost as warm as at Oran, in Algiers, and but 
