THE INDIAN SUMMER. 319 



According to tradition, no part of the year was more 

 delightful than this short period. Those accounts, how- 

 ever, that extended its duration beyond the space of four- 

 teen or fifteen days were undoubtedly exaggerated. The 

 nearest approaches to an Indian Summer which I have 

 witnessed in its proper season have never lasted a week. 

 In our day, when a warm week occurs in the autumn, it 

 comes at no regular or expected time. This irregularity 

 of its occurrence proves that it is not to be identified as 

 the Indian Summer, which was regular in its happening 

 immediately after the entire denudation ,of the forest. 

 Similar but shorter periods of mild and serene weather 

 may happen, at the present epoch, in winter and spring 

 as well as in autumn. These irregularities of the weather 

 cannot be explained ; nor can we make predictions of the 

 time when any of them may happen. But a warm period 

 in October or December or January is not an Indian Sum- 

 mer, which belonged to November, and is only a relic of 

 the past. 



The origin of the name is explained by Dr. Lyman 

 Foot, in the third volume of " Silliman's Journal." He 

 says : " If you ask an Indian in the fall when he is going 

 to his hunting-ground, he will tell you when the fall 

 summer comes, or when the Great Spirit sends our fall 

 summer ; meaning the time in November which we call 

 the Indian Summer. And the Indians actually believe 

 that the Great Spirit sends this mild season in November 

 for their special benefit." 



