Dr Forry oji the Climate of the United States. 87 



1833, to a boat expedition, the double object of wliicli was to 

 operate against the Seminoles, and to explore the sources of 

 the St John's, found, in the midst of winter, the high cane- 

 grass which covers its banks, intertwined with a variety of 

 blooming morning-glory, (Convolvulus.) The thermometer 

 at mid- day in the shade, stood at 84° Fahr., and in the sun 

 rose to 100^ ; and at night we pitched no tents, but lay be- 

 neath the conopy of lieavcn, with a screen, perhaps, over the 

 face, as a protection against the heavy dews. Notwithstand- 

 ing the day attains such a high temperature, the mercury 

 just before daylight often sinks to 45°, causing a very un- 

 comfortable sensation of cold. Along the south-eastern coast, 

 at Key Biscayno, for example, frost is never known, nor is it 

 ever so cold as to require the use of fire. In this system of 

 climate, the rigours of winter are unknown, and smiling ver- 

 dure never ceases to reign. 



The climate of Pensacola and of New Orleans, the former 

 represented by Cantonment Clinch, and the latter by Petite 

 Coquille, the two posts being respectively in the vicinity of 

 these cities, is nearly as much modified (in consequence of 

 the agency of the Gulf of Mexico, and in regard to New Or- 

 leans the additional influence of large lakes), as similar 

 parallels in East Florida. The laws of temperature relative 

 to East Florida have been perhaps more satisfactorily deter- 

 mined than in any other region of the United States. We 

 have here the data of four posts fortunately situated, viz. 

 Fort Marion at St Augustine, on the eastern coast, — Fort 

 Brooke at the head of Tampa Bay,* about thirty miles from 

 the Gulf of Mexico, — Fort King, intermediate to these two 

 points, — and Key West, belonging to the Archipelago, about 

 sixty miles southwest from Cape Sable. As Fort King is 

 situated in the interior, and the other three posts are on the 

 coast, we have an additional illustration, even in a climate 

 characterised by very little distinction of the seasons, of the 

 modifying agency of large bodies of water ; for the mean 

 temperature of winter at Fort King is lower, and that of 



* Tlic old Spanish appellation was Espirltu Santo, or Bay of the Holy 

 lioet, the name Tampa being then restricted to an arm. 



