278 Caleb Atwater on the Winds of the West. 
Another cause which contributes to produce a warmer cli- 
mate, especially in the winter season, in the valley of the Ohio, 
is, that several considerable streams which empty themselves 
into the Ohio, have their sources on the high lands, a great dis- 
- tance to the south of it; for instance, the Great and Little Sandy, 
and the Great and Little Kenhawa, which descending from a 
warm region of country, their waters contribute to keep the 
Ohio open in winter. © 3 
But these causes are by no means sufficient to produce the 
one half of the comparative warmth of climate observable in 
the immediate vicinity of this invaluable river. To prove that 
the climate is much milder in the southern than in the northera 
part of this state, I will proceed to mention several facts, whieh 
have fallen under my own observation. 
In the latter part of last February I was at the towa of Del- 
aware, on the Whetstone Branch of the Scioto river, betwee 
eighty and ninety miles south of Lake Erie, and twenty five 
miles north of Columbus, the seat of government, which is 
near the centre of the state, where I saw a number of genile- 
men direct from Detroit, by the way of Lower Sandusky, who 
informed me that the snow at that time was eighteen inches in 
depth and upwards all along the lake shore, but gradually de- 
creased as they came south until they arrived at Delaware: 
At that place it was then about twelve inches deep in the ope? 
fields, and somewhat deeper in the woods. 1 descended the 
road along the Whetstone to Columbus, the snow decreasing in 
depth all the way as I proceeded. At Columbus it wholly dis- 
appeared in the fields, and only ice was found in the road, which 
also decreased until I came to the Big Walnut Creek, thirteen 
miles south of Columbus, where it disappeared and the road be- 
gan to be muddy. As still proceeded south, the mud increased 
in depth until l came to Chilicothe, about thirty two miles south of 
Big Walnut, where the frost was entirely out of the ground, and 
the reads were almost impassable. As I still descended south- 
ward, along the Scioto, I found that at Piketon, on the Scioto, 
nineteen miles south of Chilicothe, the road had considerably 
improved. I proceeded onwards to Portsmouth on the Ohie 
