Dr Forry ofi (he Climate of the United States. 225 



in every work professing to treat of our climate, it may not 

 be amiss to examine this subject a little more in detail. Thia 

 French philosopher had the singularly bad fortune of adopt- 

 ing the errors of Dr Rush and Mr Jefferson. For example, 

 according to the former, as we recede from the ocean into 

 the interior of Pennsylvania, "the heat in summer is less in- 

 tense" — a phenomenon contrary to every law of nature, un- 

 less reference was had to the Alleghany elevations ; and, in 

 accordance with the latter, the climate becomes colder as we 

 proceed westward on the same parallel until the summit of 

 Alleghany is attained, when this law is reversed until we 

 reach the Mississippi, ivhere it is even warmer than tJie same 

 latitude on the sea-board. This theory, by the way, is based 

 upon the testimony of travellers ; and " their testimony," 

 says Jefferson, " is strengthened by the vegetables and ani- 

 mals which subsist and multiply there naturally, and do not 

 in our sea-board." — " As a traveller," adds Volney, " I can 

 confirm and enlarge upon the assertion of Mr Jefferson ;" 

 and in regard to the temperature of the regions lying east 

 and west of the Alleghanies, he concurs in the opinion, " that 

 there is a general and uniform difference, equivalent to 3° of 

 latitude, in favour of the basin of the Ohio and the Missis- 

 sippi." This conclusion, which is not deduced from ther- 

 mometrical data, rests, it will be observed, upon the phe- 

 nomena of temperature and of vegetation exhibited in the 

 region of the great lakes. " Even as high up as Niagara," 

 he continues, " it is still so temperate that the cold does not 

 continue with any severity more than two months, though 

 this is the most elevated point of the great platform — a cir- 

 cumstance totally inconsistent with the law of elevations." 

 He proceeds to say, that this climate does not correspond 

 with similar parallels in Vermont and New Hampshire, " but 

 rather with the climate of Philadelphia, 3° farther south. 

 * * * At Albany, no month of the year is exempt from 

 frost, and neither peaches nor cherries will ripen." The 

 influence of the great lakes in modifying temperature has 

 been already so abundantly demonstrated, that farther illus- 

 tration is deemed supererogatory. The phenomena observed 

 by \'olney are truly facts ; but the causes being unknown, 



VOL. X.XXIX. NO. I/XXVIII. — OCTOBER 1845. P 



