286 



/ 



But the excellence of this solution of the difficulty, depends sim- 

 ply upon its being an inaccurate statement of facts, to which, if the 

 necessary correction be applied, it becomes altogether worthless. 

 The precipitation is greater on the western than on the eastern side 

 of the Atlantic. Mr. Dalton makes the mean average of rain falling 

 in England, 31.3 inches, and the precipitation of moisture, including 

 frost and dew, 36 inches. At Paris it is 20.2, Rome 21.3, London 

 23, Padua 34.5, Pisa 43.2. At Andover, in Massachusetts, it is 

 from 4 8 to 52 inches ; at New Haven, (Connecticut,) 44 ; at Chap- 

 el Hill, (North Carolina,) 44 ; and at Charleston, (South Car- 

 olina,) it is 50.9. In general, in the whole of the eastern part 

 of North America, it appears to be above 40 inches.* The quanti- 

 ty of rain falling on the western coast of America, if we may judge 

 from the experience of Messrs. Lewis h Clarke, in the winter of 

 1805-6, is very great, but so it is in China. The Jesuit Cibot wrote 

 from there on the 20th of October, 1761, that more than five 



French feet, and of course more than 64 English inches of rain had 



i* 



fallen in that country during the past summer. That was a disas- 

 trous year, and the quantity of rain unusual ; but the case is one to 

 which the " Hercules ex pede" is applicable. If there be any ex- 

 cess of precipitation on the western coast of America over that of the 

 eastern coast of Asia, it is probably altogether too small to account 

 for the difference of temperature. + 



* See Dr. Thomas Young's Philosophy, Vol. ii, p. 277 ; President D wight's Trav- 

 els, Vol. i.p. 82; anaNhis Journal, Vol. xvi, p. 74. The number for Chapel HiB, 

 (accurately 43.865 inches) is the mean result of a register, kept by President Cald- 

 well, of this University, for six years, and extending from the 24th of July, 18*^» 

 to the 24th of July, 1825. The greatest amount of rain falling in a year, thus lim- 

 ited, was 64,2 inches ; the least, 31.4. 



t I have sometimes suspected that the winter, when Lewis & Clarke were on the 

 western coast, was peculiar, or that the weather and winds they experienced, de- 

 pended upon their position at the mouth of a large river. Almost the only wiou^ 

 they had were from the north-east and south-west; the former being dry and ac- 

 companied by clear weather, and the latter by deluges of rain. Capt. Cook agrees 

 with them in regard to the mildness of the climate, but appears to have often had trie 

 wind from the north-west. Though a sea wind, it had the same characteristics, am 

 was accompanied by the same weather as in the United States. M The weather, dur- 

 ing our stay, (at Nootka Sound,) corresponded pretty nearly with that which we had 

 experienced off the coast: that is, when the wind was any where between north an 

 west, the weather was fine and clear, but if to the southward of west, hazy, wit 

 rain. The climate, as far as we had any experience of it, is infinitely nirHer than on 

 the east coast of America, in the same latitude. "—Cook's Voyage, Vol. ii, p. 29° • 





