82 Dr Fovry on (he Climate of the United States. 



winds were northerly and dry, and the proportion of fair and 

 cloudy weather was — clear twenty-two days, cloudy three, 

 variable one, and snowy two. The mean depth of snow 

 was about six inches. The month of March has been un- 

 usually cold and dry, with one or two light falls of snow, 

 which. Math the previous coat, has just been dissolved by 

 the warmth of the solar rays without any rain. The ice 

 on the Mississippi, which broke yesterday [March 30th], is 

 now moving off en massed 



Scarcely does a winter elapse that the Hudson River is 

 not frozen over even in the vicinity of the city of New York ; 

 while Philadelphia, and even Baltimore, lying on the same 

 parallels which in Europe produce the olive and the orange, 

 have their commerce often interrupted from the same cause. 

 The Delaware, which is the latitude of Madrid and Naples, 

 is generally frozen over five or six weeks each winter. Even 

 the Potomac becomes so much obstructed by ice that all com- 

 munication with the District of Columbia, by this means, is 

 suspended for weeks. Further north, the mouth of the St 

 Lawrence is shut up by ice during five months in the year ; and 

 Hudson's Bay, notwithstanding it is in the same latitude as 

 the Baltic Sea, and of thrice the extent, is so much obstructed 

 by ice, even in the summer months, as to be comparatively 

 of little value as a navigable basin. 



We find, however, even on our northei-n coast, a climate 

 comparatively mild. As Nova Scotia is pei'fectly insular, 

 with the exception of a neck of land eight miles wide, and 

 is so much intersected by lakes and bays that nearly one- 

 third of the surface is under water, the mercury seldom rises 

 above 88° in sunmier, or sinks lower than 6° or 8° below zero 

 in winter. In addition to this, some influence must be exer- 

 cised by the Gulf Stream, which strikes upon this part of the 

 coast, " in tides of from 60 to 70 feet, overflows the country 

 to the distance of several miles, and converts the mouths of 

 streams, fordable at low water, into extensive arms of the 

 sea, where whole fleets may ride at anchor." 



The meteorological phenomena of Canada, Nova Scotia, 

 New Brunswick, and Newfoundland, according to the data 

 furnished in the British Army satistics, are in perfect har- 



