88 Dr Forry on (he Climate of the United States. 



summer higher, than at the other three posts. Although 

 Key West, which is 4° 39' south of Fort King, has a mean 

 annual temperature 3°-43 higher, yet the mean summer tem- 

 perature is 2°. 81 lower — a law which is strikingly illustrated 

 on the map of the United States, which shews that the iso- 

 theral line of Key West cuts Savannah, Augusta, and Fort 

 Gibson. This equalizing influence of the ocean is still fur- 

 ther exhibited in the annual range of the thermometer, the 

 mean of the monthly ranges, and the average difference of 

 the successive months. f During the summer months, the 

 morning and evening observations at Fort King and Key 

 West are nearly the same, the disparity being caused by the 

 exalted temperature of the former at mid-day. As is usual 

 in southern latitudes, there is a little variation presented at 

 Key West in the mean tempei^ature of the same month in 

 different years. Within the period of six years (from 1830 

 to 1835 inclusive), the mercury at Key West was never 

 known to rise higher than 90°, or sink lower than 44°. 



There is little difference between the thermometrical phe- 

 nomena presented at Key West and the Havannah. In the 

 West India Islands, the mean annual temperature near the 

 sea is only about 80°. At Barbadoes, the mean temperature 

 of the seasons is as follows : winter 76°, spring 79°, summer 

 81°, and autumn 80°. The temperature is remarkably uni- 

 form ; for the mean annual range of the thermometer, even 

 in the most excessive of the islands, is, according to the 

 British army statistics, only 13°, and in some not more than 

 4°. Contrast this with Hancock Barracks, Maine, which 

 gives an annual range of 118°, Fort Snelling, Iowa, 119°, and 

 Fort Howard, Wiskonsan, 123° ! 



The peculiar character of the climate of East Florida, as 

 distinguished from that of our more northern latitudes, con- 

 sists less in the mean annual temperature than in the man- 

 ner of its distribution among the seasons. At Fort Snel- 

 ling, for example, the mean temperature of winter is 15°'95, 

 and of summer 72°'75, whilst at Fort Brooke, Tampa Bay, 



t All these various results arc presenteil in a tabular form in tlie 

 author's work on " The Cliuiate of the United States, and its Endemic 

 Influences." 



