oa 
West and North. West Winds of New-England. 313 
as to be uncomfortable. ‘The following mete about 8 
o'clock, a violent blast from the north-west at Gre 
field; and just about the same time at New 
so cold as to freeze, during that night, Mill Row 
Narrows, where the ve is rapid, so hard, thi 
t day by 
crossed on the ice the n 
WwW 
me day, horses were led. th oestennuc, on the 
ice, at Derby. On the same day ies foot passengers 
_ walked across the Susquehannah, at Havre de Grace; 
where the river is a mile and one fourth in breadth. Soon 
after, I was very credibly, and I presume correctly inform- 
ed, that the same blast commenced at Norwich, and at 
Boston, about two o’clock in the afternoon. This could 
not have happened, if the wind had merely swept the sur- 
face of the earth: for Norwich lies seventy travelled miles 
eastward of Greenfield; and Boston one hundred and fifty- 
eight. From New-York Norwich lies eighty miles east- 
ward, sioahaipd ona parallel of latitude, and fifty miles 
northward, on a meridian; and Boston one hundred and 
twenty eastward, and the same distance northward: the 
oblique distance, as travelled, being about two hundred and 
n. 
“This opinion is also strongly supported by the facts, that 
the westerly winds are generally much cooler than the tem- 
perature of the atmosphere immediately preceding 5 and 
that this change, in a great proportion of instances, exists 
almost instantaneously. ‘These facts would, I think, be 
Impossible from the mere movements of that volume of air, 
Which rests on the surface. 
“These winds are purer than any others; a fact universal- 
ly remarked throughout this country. During their prev- 
alence the lungs are feasted, and the frame invigorated, in 
such a manner as is never experienced at any other season. 
Their influence on plants, also, is entirely peculiar. It is 
customarily said by those who have long cultivated tobac- 
co, that its leaves are perceptibly thicker, and heavier, af- 
ter a north-west wind has blown two or three days, than at 
any other time ; and such a season is cousidecell by skilful 
cultivators as she best for cutting this plant. When grass, 
* In Fairfield. 
40 
Vor, VIL—N Oo. 2 
