CALORIC. 441 



mowing their swathes of death. The tracks of many of them 

 are visible for years in the form of narrow avenues of fallen 

 and crushed timber (called fallen-timbers) torn through the 

 dense forests. They observe the same laws of progress in 

 their passage of the mountains, and occur at the same 

 periods of the year, as at other places. 



The smaller storms, or circumscribed meteors, from a 

 single cloud, dropping its contents, to the regular thunder 

 storms several miles in circumference, are accompanied by 

 winds from all quarters, more or less violent, from moderate 

 breezes to almost the tornado's force. In the mountains 

 these small storms show their usual character, as elsewhere, 

 perhaps a little more noisy from their battling with the 

 forests. There is nothing peculiar except that the low scud 

 or fog-clouds often envelop the whole mountain-top in a 

 silver mantle, while the region below is clear 



CALORIC. 



It would appear, as the result of the concurrent evidence 

 of meteorologists, physical geographers, and writers on 

 climate in general, that the climate of the continent of North 

 America is peculiar in its caloric developments, and has 

 characters quite its own, being separated widely in its lead- 

 ing features from that of the Old World. This is soon 

 visible by comparing the American climate with that of 

 Europe and Africa. It will be seen that the range of the 

 thermometer is more extensive, that the changes are quicker 

 and greater, that the heat in summer is more excessive, and 

 the cold in winter more intense, in the same parallels of lati- 

 tude, on the shores of America than in those of Europe. It 

 is also stated that the Western Atlantic is much more 

 stormy than the Eastern. Buffon placed the climate of 

 North America in the class of " excessive climates" ex- 

 cessively hot in summer, and excessively cold in winter, 

 thus exhibiting a great extent of the annual range of tern- 



