REVIEWS — CLIMATOLOGY OF THE UNITED STATES. 29 



tutlon, in which capacity he was enabled to collect a large mass of 

 data ; and he has also apparently met with the utmost readiness on 

 the part of the large body of observers throughout the continent to 

 supply him with the results of their labors; so that as regards .the 

 temperate latitudes, to which his discussions are chiefly confined, 

 there has been no dearth of materials. 



The general arrangement of the book is clearly set forth in its 

 ample title page : — it exhibits the geographical distribution of 

 temperature and of the fall of rain and snow for the temperate 

 regions of North America, it discusses the peculiarities of the two 

 climatological areas into which the continent is divided by the Rocky 

 Mountains, and draws a comparison between these and regions of 

 analogous position in the old world. In conducting these comparisons 

 regard is had to outline configuration, vertical elevation, and other 

 physical featui'es. The whole is illustrated by a series of neatly exe- 

 cuted charts, consisting of an isothermal chart of North America for 

 each of the four seasons, and one for the year, together with as many 

 corresponding charts of rain and snow. There is also a temperature 

 chart and a rain chart for the whole north temperate zone, with a 

 profile of comparative altitudes for both hemis]>heres. 



The book opens with an exhibition of the physical data upon which 

 the author's subsequent discussions are based. 



These data in the first place consist of the mean temperatures and 

 the depths of rain at a large number of points both in the old and 

 new world, arranged in tables for each month, the four seasons, 

 and the year. In every case where it is practicable the latitudes and 

 vertical elevations of the stations are given, together with the num- 

 ber of years from which the means are derived, and the actual dates 

 at which the series comm-onced and terminated. For the old and 

 new worlds the tables are arranged in separate groups. Besides the 

 foregoing, for a few stations of importance in the United States at 

 which observations have been continued during a long series of years, 

 additional tables are given separately for each station, showing the 

 monthly and annual mean temperatures, with the precipitation of 

 rain and snow for each year that the period embraces. 



Following the above mentioned and strictly meteorological details, 

 which occupy the whole of the first chapter to the extent of about 

 eighty pages, is a chapter on physical geography, which includes, in a 

 tabular form, the vertical topography of the country east of the 

 Eocky Mountains, arranged in belts perpendicular to the general 

 direction of the Alleghanies. Another list for the regions west of 



