1S37.J 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



599 



we had with us were kept in exact discipline, and 

 behaved without reproach, yet our landlord bejian 

 to be tired ol" iheni, fearing they would breed'^a 

 famine in ills liimily. 



Indeed so many keen stomachs made great 

 havoc amongst Ihc beet and bacon which he had 

 laid in for hissauun.^r |)rovision, norcould hee.isily 

 purchase inure at thai time o( the year with 'the 

 motley we paid him — because people havinir no 

 certain market, seldom provide an}^ more of these 

 commodil'ies than will barely supply their own oc- 

 casions.,. Besides, the weather vvas now "rrown 

 too warm to lay in a fresh stock so late in the 

 s|)ring. These considerations abated somewhat 

 of that cheerfulness with whicdi he bid us wel- 

 come in the beginning, and made him think the 

 time quite as long' as we did, till the surveyors re- 

 turnt^d. 



While we were thus all hands uneasy, we were 

 comforted with the news that, this afternoon, the 

 line was finished through the Dismal. The mes- 

 senger told us it had been the hard work of three 

 days, to measuie the length of only 5 miles, and 

 mark the trees as they >passed along ; and by the 

 most exact survey, they found the breadth of the 

 Dismal in this place, to be com))Ietely 15 miles. 



How wide it may be in other pai'ts, we cat give 

 no account; but believe it grows narrower to- 

 Avards the north. Possibly, towards Albemarle 

 Sound it may be something broader, where so 

 many rivers issue out of it. All we know ibr cer- 

 tain, is, that from the place where the line enter- 

 ed the Dismal, to where it came otit, we found the 

 road round that portion of it, which belongs to 

 Virginia, to be about 65 miles. How great the 

 distance may be from each of those points, round 

 that part that (alls within the bounds of Carolina, 

 we had no certain inlbrmation — though it is con- 

 jectured it cannot be so little as 30 miles: at 

 which rate the whole circuit nutst be about an 

 hundred. What a mass of mud and dirt is trea- 

 sured up within this filthy circumference, and 

 what a quantity of water must perpetually drain 



into it from the rising ground, that surrounds it on 



•1-1 ° ° 



every side i 



Without faking the exact level of the Dismal, 

 we may be sure that it declines towards the places 

 where the several rivers take their rise, in order to 

 carrying off the constant supplies of water. Were 

 it not for such discharge.;, the whole swamp 

 would long since have been converted into a lake. 

 On the other side, this declension must be very 

 gentle, else it would be laid perli^ctly dry by so 

 many continuous drdins: whereas, on the contra- 

 ry, the ground seems every where to be thorough- 

 ly drenched, even in the dryest season of the year. 



The surveyors concluded this day's work with 

 running 25 chains up into the firm land, where 

 they wailed fart het' orders from the commissioners. 



For the farmers' Register. 



THE DIFFEREXCE OF CLIMATE BETWEEN THE 

 EASTERN SIDE OF THE CONTINENT OF 

 NORTH AMERICA AND EUROPE. 



Review, j^n Ussay on the Climate of the United 

 States : 8 vo. pp. 44, 2tid ed : Philadelphia, 1833. 



This pamphlet appears to have been originally 

 published in 1809, and re-published in 1833, with 



the addition of an appendix containing several 

 notes. 



This essay is, as the title page informs us, an 

 inquuy into the causes ol" the difierence in climate 

 between the eastern side of the continent of North 

 America and Europe — the appendix being mainly 

 occupied with a new solution of the qiieslion, why 

 the temperature of western Europe, is hi<iher thiui 

 that of the eastern coasts of America in the same 

 latitudes. 



The author rejects the common notion that the 

 temperature will be mitigated by clearinir and cul- 

 tivating the surface, and gives an instance; China, 

 an em[)ire so well cultivated, which is yet subject 

 to extreme vicissitudes of heat and cold. He at- 

 tributes the diH'erence between the climate of the 

 opposite shores of Europe and America, to the 

 prevalence of the westerly winds. These winds, 

 he says, blowing over the American continent, 

 make the winter colder, and the summer watimer, 

 in North America — while blowing over the Atlan- 

 tic, ihe_v make the climate of Europe milder in 

 summer and winter both — the same causes thus 

 producing opposite effects in the two continents. 

 The writer next investigates the cause of the pre- 

 valence of westerly winds, in an argument, elabo- 

 rate, abstruse, and, perhaps, from the nature of 

 the subject, somewhat vague and conjectural. He 

 contends that the trade winds, imjieded in their 

 course by the American continent, return by a 

 sort of eddv current in a westerly direction. 



If must be conlessed, that the nature of the 

 winds is very obscure — "they blow where they list, 

 and no man knovveth whence they come, nor 

 whither they go." There are so many currents, 

 and under-currents, and tides of air — so many 

 changes by rarefiiction and condensation — the re- 

 volutions of the earth, and of the sun, and the cur- 

 rents of the ocean — that it requires a despotic 

 iEolus to reduce them to order and regulate their 

 furv. 



To solve the question of the higher temperature 

 of the European countries of the west, than that 

 of the eastern coasts of North America in the 

 same latitude, the writer argues that the greater 

 body of the northern Atlantic, must be to the 

 south — where being exposed to the more vertical 

 rays of the sun, the waters become heated — this 

 heat is communicated to the atmosphere, and that 

 the winds blowinu: from the west, over the Atlan- 

 tic, impart a milder temperature to the western 

 countries of Euro['e, than is enjoyed on the coasts 

 of North America in the same latitudes— and that 

 the gulf stream tends also to produce the same 

 effect. To these speculations in abstract physical 

 geography, succeed some observations of a more 

 f)raclical bearing. The essay, denies that there 

 have been such vast changes in the climate of 

 European countries, as have been insisted on by 

 some writers, and the author concludes, that 

 where trees and plants incapable of withstanding 

 hard frosts are indigenous, we may inft^r that the 

 climate is not a severe one. 



He thinks that the clearing and cultivation of a 

 country, instead of making the climate milder, 

 may cause greater extremes of heat and cold ; and 

 hence, the increased backwardness of spring and 

 lateness of autumn, observable in this country. In 

 answer to the opinion, that clearing forests will 

 cause the surface to become more dry, and conse- 

 quently warmer — he says, that the air does not 



