Dv Forry on the Climate of the United States. 91 



tropical climates a portion of the year is known as the rainy 

 season, and as the same quantity of rain descends in a con- 

 siderably shorter space of time than in the temperate zone, 

 it follows that the proportion of fair days and clear skies is 

 infinitely in favour of the former. This is strikingly evi- 

 denced in a comparison of Fort King, in the interior of East 

 Florida, and of our nortliern lakes already adverted to ; the 

 annual number of fair days at the former being 309, and at 

 the latter only 117. On the coast of Florida, however, the 

 average is not more than 250 days. 



Thus it is demonstrated that invalids requiring a mild 

 winter residence, have gone to foreign lands in search of 

 what might have been found at home, viz. an evergreen land. 

 in which wildflowers never cease to unfold their petals. But 

 to treat of the advantage of peninsular Florida as a winter 

 residence for pulmonic and other invalids from more northern 

 latitudes, would be incompatible with our present object. 



Having completed the details relative to each division of 

 the United States, we may now take a glance at the general 

 laws of climate, as illustrative of their harmony throughout 

 the globe. It is an impoi-tant general law in reference to 

 both continents, that a striking analogy exists, on the one 

 hand, in the climatic features of the western coasts, and, on 

 the other hand, in those of the eastern shores. Thus in 

 tracing the same isothermal line around the northern hemi- 

 sphere beyond the tropic, it presents on the east side of both 

 continents concave, and on the west side convex, summits. 

 Following the mean annual temperature of 55°'40 Fahr. 

 around the whole globe, we find it passes on the 



E. coast of old -(rorkl, N. Lat. 39" 54', E. Lon. IIG' 27', near Pekln. 

 E. coast of new world, N. Lat. 39' 56', W. Lon. 76° 16', Philadelphia. 

 W. coast of old world, N. Lat. 45° 46', Vv^ Lon. 0° 37', near Bordeaux. 

 W. coast of new world, N. Lat. 44° 40', W. Lon. 104° 0', Cape Foul- 

 weather, south of the mouth of Columbia. 



On compai'ing the two systems, the concave and convex 

 summits of the same isothermal lino, " Ave find," says Hum- 

 boldt, " at New York the summer of Rome and the winter 

 -of Copenhagen ; and at Quebec the summer of Paris and the 

 winter of Petersburgh. In China, at Pekin, for example, 



