Dr. Forry on the Climate of the United States, ^c. 35 



situated, viz. Fort Marion at St. Augustine, on the eastern coast, 

 — Fort Brooke at the head of Tampa Bay,* about thirty miles 

 from the Gulf of Mexico, — Fort King, intermediate to these two 

 points, — and Key West, belonging to the Archipelago, about six- 

 ty miles southwest of Cape Sable. As Fort King is situated in 

 the interior, and the other three posts are on the coast, we have 

 an additional illustration, even in a climate characterized by very 

 little distinction of the seasons, of the modifying agency of large 

 bodies of water ; for the mean temperature of winter at Fort King 

 is lower, and that of summer higher, than at the other three posts. 

 Although Key West, which is 4° 39' south of Fort King, has a 

 mean annual temperature 3° -43 higher, yet the mean summer 

 temperature is 2°-8l lower — a law which is strikingly illustrated 

 on the map of the United States, which shows that the isotheral 

 line of Key West cuts Savannah, Augusta, and Fort Gibson. 

 This equalizing influence of the ocean is still further exhibited 

 in the annual range of the thermometer, the mean of the month- 

 ly ranges, and the average difference of the successive months.f 

 During the summer months, the morning and evening observa- 

 tions at Fort King and Key West are nearly the same, the dis- 

 parity being caused by the exalted temperature of the former at 

 mid-day. As is usual in southern latitudes, there is a little vari- 

 ation presented at Key West in the mean temperature of the same 

 month in different years. Within the period of six years, (from 

 1830 to 1835 inclusive,) the mercury at Key West was never 

 known to rise higher than 90^, or sink lov\'-er than 44°. 



There is little difference between the thermometrical phenom- 

 ena presented at Key West and the Havana. In the West India 

 islands, the mean annual temperature near the sea is only about 

 80°. At Barbadoes, the mean temperature of the seasons is as 

 follows: winter 76°, spring 79°, summer 81°, and autumn 80°. 

 The temperature is remarkably uniform ; for the mean annual 

 range of the thermometer, even in the most excessive of the isl- 

 ands, is, according to the British army statistics, only 13°, and in 

 some not more than 4°. Contrast this with Hancock Barracks, 

 Maine, which gives an average annual range of 118°; Fort Snell- 

 ing, Iowa, 119°, and Fort Howard, Wiskonsan, 123°! 



* Tlie old Spanish appellation was Espiritu Santo, or Bay of the Holy Ghost, the 

 name Tampa being then restricted to an arm. 



t All these various results are presented in a tabular form in the author's work 

 on " The Climate of the United States and its Endemic Influences." 



