MARCH. 33 



Our climate, being a discordant mixture of the weather 

 of two opposite latitudes pouring their winds alternately 

 upon our territory, is the most variable and deceitful in 

 the world. Alternating with each other and struggling 

 as it were for the mastery are two winds, one that 

 sweeps across the Canadas and brings with it the cold 

 of the polar regions, another that comes from the Gulf 

 of Mexico and brings here the summer breezes of the 

 tropics. No natural barrier is interposed to check their 

 progress whenever any meteoric influence may urge them 

 onward. The prevalence of a moderate temperature in 

 this part of the country during a calm, either in spring 

 or autumn, proves this to be the true weather of our lati- 

 tude. The north and south winds are intruders that spoil 

 the comfort we might otherwise enjoy in the open air 

 at all seasons except the three months of winter. Our 

 climate may, therefore, not unaptly be compared to a 

 village that is peopled by quiet and peaceable inhabit- 

 ants, but visited by troublesome people from the adjoining 

 villages, who by their quarrels with each other keep it in 

 a constant uproar, leaving the villagers only an occasional 

 respite during their absence. 



March is persistent only in its variableness. If it be 

 cold, heat will soon succeed ; if we have clouds, they will 

 soon bring along a clear sky. "We see none of those mel- 

 ancholy clouds, so common in the latter part of autumn, 

 that remain for weeks brooding over the landscape, as if 

 the heavens were hung in mourning for the departure of 

 summer, none of that ominous darkness in the glens 

 and valleys, denoting that the sun has at length sur- 

 rendered to the frosty conqueror of the earth. Though 

 March is colder, it has more light than November. The 

 sun daily increases in power, and the snow that remains 

 upon the earth renders the effect of his rays more brill- 

 iant and animating. The clouds of this month are sel- 



2* c 



