Dr. Forry on the Climate of the United States, $-c. 47 



It may be well to add, that with the exception of the last, the 

 writer is not aware of the local position of these points of com- 

 parison,— a consideration which may be supposed to be of some 

 importance, inasmuch as the northern division of the United 

 States presents, on the same isothermal line, a difference between 

 the mean temperature of winter and summer, varying from 38° 

 to 54°. This does not, however, in the least affect the law of 



the climatic analogy of the eastern and western continental 

 coasts. 



But this law, that the same causes which increase the mean 

 annual temperature also equalize the seasons, does not hold good ' 

 in the United States, in receding from the Atlantic ; for, on 

 comparing the climate of the coast of New England with the 

 still more excessive climate of the interior, it is found that the 

 mean annual temperature of the latter is higher. That the cli- 

 mate should become more austere, the seasons being less equal- 

 led, is in accordance with the laws established by Humboldt ; 

 but that the isothermal line, at the same time, should become 

 more convex, is in diametrical opposition. 



*orts Sullivan, Snelling, and Howard, for example, have very 

 nearly the same latitude ; the first, on the ocean, has a mean an- 

 nual temperature of 42°-95, while the last two, in the opposite 

 system of climate, have a mean respectively of 45°-83 and 

 •92, — a result the more unexpected, at first sight, as the latter 

 a re in a region elevated six hundred to eight hundred feet above 

 me level of the sea. Comparing Fort Wolcott, on the ocean, 

 ^th Fort Armstrong, West Point, and Council Bluffs, in the in- 

 terior, the same relation is found. Fort Trumbull, it is true, 

 rs an exception ; but it is necessary to bear in mind that the 

 esults of this post are based on two years' observation only, 

 Wn "le those of Fort Wolcott are calculated from ten ; and in 

 urther evidence of its probable erroneousness, it may be men- 

 toned that the mean annual temperature at Fort Columbus, 

 whicn is 0° 40 / farther south than Fort Trumbull, based on nine 

 pars' observations, is 2° less. Again, we find that while at Sa- 

 ,e m, near the Atlantic, in lat. 42° 34', the mean annual tempera- 

 te, based on thirty three years' observations, is 48° -61, it is, on 

 Jhe other hand, at Fort Armstrong, lat. 41° 28', Council Bluffs, 



-oo 4, ° 45 '' and at West Point ' lat 4I ° 22 '' res P ectiveI y 51°63, 

 60 > a nd 52°-47. Here then is actually an increase of from 



