96 Dr Forry on the Climate of the United States. 



sary that both points have the same relative position. Fort 

 Sullivan, Maine, notwithstanding it is more than 11° south 

 of Edinburgh, Scotland, exhibits a mean annual temperature 

 b}° lower ; Bordeaux, which is parallel with Fort Sullivan, 

 has an annual temperature 15^ higher ; and the mean of 

 Stockholm, in lat. 59° 20', is about the same as that of Fort 

 Sullivan, in lat. 44° 44'. These are not, however, legitimate 

 points of comparison. Pekin and Philadelphia, each on the 

 eastern coast of its respective continent, are fair examples, 

 having the same latitude and a similar relative position, and 

 consequently the same mean annual temperature. A com- 

 parison between western Europe and the United States 

 would be equally improper with a comparison between it 

 and China. " Thus at Pekin, in lat, 40° N., long. 116° 

 20' E.," we are told,* " the mean temperature of summer 

 is 78°-8, and of winter 23° — a difference of not less than 

 55°-8, which gives rise to a frost of several months' duration 

 in that part of China ; yet Pekin is under the same parallel 

 as the southern extremity of Naples, where frost is unknown, 

 and of the central provinces of Spain, in which, though at 

 an elevation of two hundred feet above the sea, ice is an 

 extremely rare occurrence." 



Now, at Philadelphia, on an average of thirty-two years, 

 the mean summer temperature is only 73°']7, and that of 

 winter is as high as S2°-96, making a difference of 42°-21. 

 Hence, as this difference is nearly 15° less at Philadelphia 

 than at Pekin, and as the same result appears in the sub- 

 joined comparison of similar parallels in Oregon and in 

 western Europe, it follows, contrary to general, indeed we 

 may say universal, opinion, that the new world, so far from 

 having a climate more austere than the old, has, in fact, if 

 there really exists any difference, a more mild and uniform 

 temperature. 



It is only within the temperate zone, from 30° to 60° of 

 north latitude, that the year exhibits the grateful vicissitudes 

 of the four seasons — the varied charms of s^Dring and autumn, 

 the tempered fii-es of summer, and the healthful rigours of 



* Encyclopeedia Britannica, 



