to the Legislature of the State ofJVew York. 259 



of teaching, and two academies last year furnished seventy teachers, . 

 who are now, we trust, fountains of knowledge to large circles of pupils. 



The first "Abstract" shows the course of studies pursued at the 

 different academies — besides Arithmetic, English Grammar, Geog- 

 raphy and Latin and Greek, we find Book-keeping, Biblical and 

 Roman Antiquities, Constitutions of New York and the United 

 States, Criticism, Rhetoric, Logic, Intellectual and Moral Philoso- 

 phy, Evidences of Christianity, Natural Theology, Political Econo- 

 my, History, History and Statistics of the United States, Princi- 

 ples of Teaching, Hebrew, German, French and Spanish, Drawing, 

 Painting, Vocal and Instrumental Music, Algebra, Geometry, Plane 

 and Spherical Trigonometry, Mensuration, Navigation, Surveying 

 and Engineering, Conic Sections, Differential and Integral Calculus j 

 Chemistry and Natural Philosophy, illustrated by apparatus and ex- 

 periments ; Astronomy, Mechanics, Hydrostatics, Technology, Veg- 

 etable Physiology, Topography, and Architecture. 



Meteorological returns, more or less complete, embracing observa- 

 tions upon the thermometer, the wind and weather, were made by 

 forty-three academies, which are scattered over an extent of six de- 

 grees of longitude, and about four degrees of latitude. We give 

 some of the most interesting summaries. 



The annual mean temperature, as deduced from the average of the 

 complete returns of thirty-four academies, is 47'47° ; the highest de- 

 gree during the year, (99°) was observed at Dutchess County and 

 Montgomery Academies ; and the lowest, ( — 30°,) at Gouverneur 

 and Oxford ; greatest annual range (128°,) at Gouverneur ; great- 

 est monthly range (84°,) at Oxford ; a remarkable uniformity ap- 

 pears in the climate during the winter, from the fact that the coldest 

 day at thirty-five places, occurred, widi three exceptions, upon the 

 26th or 27th of January; at eighteen places, the 26th was coldest. 



The prevailing winds for the year were, south at sixteen places, 

 south-west at ten, and north-west at six. Average of rain and snow 

 at thirty-three places, 37-21 inches ; greatest quantity, 53-46 inches, 

 at Kinderhook. August was the wettest month &t seventeen places. 



The miscellaneous observations, collected from the " Reports," 

 and from periodicals, upon the progress of vegetation, Sic, aurora 

 borealis, haloes, meteors, earthquake, and weather, are very numer- 

 ous and interesting. 



Mineralogy has its observer, as appears from one of the Reports ; 

 botany holds a prominent place, as indicated by two catalogues j one 



