322 FOREST LIFE IN ACADIE. 



REMARKS ON THE ABOVE QUARTER. 



The weather during the foregoing winter months 

 was exceedingly unsettled. The mean temperatures of 

 January, February, and March were 23"", 26°, and 28°, 

 respectively ; the minimum of cold in January, — 5°, 

 being unusually small. There are few instances of the 

 two coldest months, January and February, passing over 

 without —10"^ to —15° being registered. Even in the 

 beginning of March, in some winters, the climate is still 

 subject to the occurrence of one of those sudden passages 

 of extreme cold, with strong N. and N.W. winds, which 

 sweep uniformly over the continent from high latitudes, 

 and form the most dreaded feature of the North Ame- 

 rican winter. On these occasions, and in severe visita- 

 tions, the mercury will fall to —15°, and sometimes, 

 though very rarely, to —20°, at Halifax, Nova Scotia; 

 the minimum contemporary cold indicated at Sydney, 

 (Cape Breton), Frederictown (New Brunswick), Bangor 

 (Maine), and Kingston (Upper Canada), being —30° to 

 —40°. In the beginning of March, 1863, a heavy snow- 

 storm was followed by severe cold, the thermometer 

 registering —6° at Halifax, and —30° at Sydney, Cape 

 Breton. A similar late visitation of cold weather follow- 

 ing a deep fall of snow occurred in March, 1859, when 

 the mercury fell to —3° and —5° during the nights of 

 the first three days of the month. The heaviest falls of 

 snow occur in February and early in March, when 

 sometimes nearly three feet of fresh snow is deposited, 

 accumulating by road sides in immense drifts which 

 almost hide small dwellings. On the 8th February, 

 1866, Halifax harbour was entirely frozen over, and bore 



