Caleb Atwater oh the Winds of the West, 279 



river, at the mouth of the Scioto, about twenty-six miles south 

 of Piketon, where the ground was entirely settled, and the 

 innkeeper, where I lodged, was making his garden, sowing his 

 sallad seed, and planting his peas. This journey was per- 

 formed in three days, and in travelling only one hundred and 

 fifteen miles from north to south, this extraordinary difference 

 of climate was observed. 



A traveller may leave Portsmouth when the farmer is be- 

 ginning to hoe his corn the first time, and travel with good 

 speed to Delaware, and find the husbandman just beginning to 

 plant. 



Instances which have fallen within my own personal obser- 

 vation might be multiplied to a great extent, but a few may 

 suffice. 



Generally speaking, there is a difference in the beginning 

 and ending of the warm season of about two weeks between 

 Portsmouth and Delaware, or of three weeks between the 

 former place and Lower Sandusky. 



In relation to the warmth of the climate, I will state two 

 other facts, originating, as I believe, in the prevalence of the 

 southern current of air from the Mexican Gulf along the Ohio 

 river. 



First, In the summer months the paroquet ascends the 

 Scioto more than one hundred miles from its mouth, and until 

 within a few years past, wintered at Miller's Bottom, and at 

 other places along the banks of the Ohio, near its great 

 southern bend in latitude 38° north, in Gallia and Lawrence 

 counties, in the state of Ohio. I have seen them there 

 in all the winter months in considerable numbers, but few 

 however now winter there ; and probably if the cold north- 

 western current of air from the great lakes becomes more and 

 •more prevalent in the winter months, these birds will mi- 

 grate altogether to a more southern clime. 



Are these birds found as far to the north on the east side of 

 the Alleghany by at least three degrees ? Monsieur Volney, 

 Mr. Jefferson, and others, say not. It has been denied that 

 this fact proves any thing more than that this bird frequented 

 these parts in quest of it« favourite food. This food is grass 



