242 Climatolagy of the United States. 
care in the hope of finding some particulars of these observa 
tions, but in vain. We do not intend to express any doubt 
the accuracy of the above statement, but we think that a degree 
dryness so remarkable is worthy of a more extended. notice. 
On page 396 he says that “at Goldsborough, N. C., snow fell jor 
an hour or more on the evening of Sunday, Aug. 31st, 1856. 
Among the many remarkable facts stated in the Climatology, 
this is one of the most remarkable, and we think Mr. Bl 
should have been more careful to give his authority for the 
statement. On page 482 he says, “It is certain that no changes 
of subsidence, elevation, or continental outlines are now in pro 
gress.” We cannot help regarding this conclusion as the most 
important addition which has been made in modern times 1 
the science of geology. Perhaps some would question it. 
On page 481, he says, ‘Laplace has shown that the mean tem- 
perature of the mass of the earth cannot have changed in any 
appreciable measure within the entire period embraced by astronom 
tal calculati 
a hundred thousand ora million of years; we can assigD it ne 
calculations have actually extended, we shall find them suffi. 
ciently long. Leverrier has computed that the eqoaniene , 
the earth’s orbit will continue to diminish during the oe ihe | 
that the eccentricity of Jupiter's orbit has a variation whos 
6 
Now Laplace has shown that the mean heat of the earth 6 
not shown that it may not have changed sensibly in 10,000 y eal 
and geological phenomena unequivocally prove that the ag 
ure has changed sensibly within a period which is not long W"" 
4 ] 
