AN ADDRESS, &C. 



States, about the 22d and 23d of December, and the Dela, 

 ware was frozen below the falls at Trenton, but the follow- 

 ing week, the weather was mild and pleasant, requiring ve- 

 ry little fire. Severe cold was also experienced at Hallo- 

 well in Maine, at the same time; but " moderate and even 

 warm weather,?' succeeded. On the 27th of December the 

 thermometer at the Health office, Philadelphia, in the shade 

 at 2 o'clock P. M. was at 64°; and on the same day at Al- 

 exandria, in the District of Columbia, the singular fact was 

 Doted of its being at 58° in the morning, that is, three de- 

 gress higher than it was on the 21st August last; and the 

 heat of the same day, at 2 o'clock P.M. was only one degree 

 above that of the 21st of December. At Montreal the snow 

 had nearly disappeared, and the rivers which had been fro- 

 zen over had opened in the channel.* 



Thus the phenomena presented by the past and present 

 season, shew to demonstration the correctness of the opini- 

 on I have long entertained, viz, the impossibility of forming 

 any conclusion as to the weather that will follow the appear- 

 ances of a dav or week, or month, and justifies the remark 

 long since made by a correct observer, that our "climate 

 is invariably variable." We may most truly say, that as 

 regards the weather, we "know not what a day will bring 

 forth." In England, it also appears that the season was cold.f 

 In Scotland, cold cloudy and wet, with few intervals of clear 

 genial weather, and the harvest was one month later than 

 usual, and very deficient. The same unfavourable weather 

 is said to have prevailed in most parts of the continent of 

 Europe.:}: 



* On the 4th January, it is stated in the Montreal Courant,-" that the 

 snow has almost entirely gone off, and with but little variations, the Christ- 

 mas holy.days have more represented the beginning of a Canadian spring, 

 than the season of winter." 



t There was a considerable fall of snow in October, in the lower parts of 

 Cambridge and Huntingdonshires, and the frost was very severe. 



* See Appendix B. for additional facts on the weather. 



