TEMPERATURE — SUIMMER. 85 



interpret it, for it is simply impossible that such a long, 

 narrow strip of land, its shores bathed by a great body of 

 water on three sides and constant winds sweeping over it, 

 their extremes tempered by its influence, should be either 

 as cold or as hot as land in the same latitude not so lo- 

 cated. 



In the winter the winds passing over the Gulf-stream 

 before touching the land lose a great portion of their 

 sharpness ; during the summer the current of cold water 

 that passes between the east coast and the Gulf-stream, 

 tempers and cools the warm air sweeping across it. 



That is one reason why Florida is so favored in summer 

 as well as in winter. Another (that also operates in the 

 latter season, as we have already noted) is the absence of 

 neighboring mountains to check the constant and even 

 circulation of the air. The result is that Florida is never 

 without a breeze, morning, noon, or night ; first from the 

 one great body of outlying waters, then from the other, a 

 constant succession of pure, life-giving breezes are playing 

 back and forth over her broad bosom. Of all the many 

 summers the writer has spent in Florida, the first unbear- 

 ably hot day or night has yet to appear ! 



We do not claim that Florida summers are not warm, 

 very warm in the sun or in violent exercise, just as else- 

 where, but we do claim, and ninety-nine out of a hun- 

 dred of her citizens will bear us out in the assertion, that 

 her summer is more pleasant and less oppressive than that 

 of any other State, north or south. 



Who has not suffered from the oppressive heat of the 

 northern summer season with the thermometer ranging 

 high up among the nineties, and not a breath of air stir- 

 ring to cool the fevered pulse and throbbing head ! 



In our own old home, Philadelphia, we have many a 

 time marked the thermometer at 96°, 98°, 100°; even 



