278 Meteorological Journal at Marietta, Ohio, for 1843. 



very early, so that the Ohio River was frozen over by the twenty 

 eighth day of November, both above and below Marietta, but 

 continued closed only about a week, when a fall of rain, with a 

 more elevated temperature, set it free. The weather at no time 

 during the winter was very cold ; but it continued for a long 

 time, not less than four and a half months, the coldest morning 

 being on the 24th of March, when the mercury sunk to zero, 

 being the lowest during the winter. The mean temperature for 

 February was eleven degrees less than for the same month in 

 1842. There was but little snow, or rain, the whole amount of 

 both being but seven inches, for the winter months. The winds 

 were chiefly from the west and northwest, which always come 

 to us bearing a small amount of caloric, being deprived of that 

 life-giving property in their passage over the elevated regions of 

 "the far west." 



The mean temperature of the spring months was 46° -77, be- 

 ing about ten and a half degrees less than the spring of 1842, 

 which was 57° 11. The most marked difference in the spring 

 months of these two years, was in March and April, the former 

 being 23° -75, and April 8° less than the corresponding months in 

 the year 1842. There was also a remarkable change in the pro- 

 gress of vegetation, the low grade of temperature retarding, as 

 much as the unusual heat of the former year had accelerated its 

 growth ; even to the last of March there was but little more ap- 

 pearance of spring than in February. In March my floral jour- 

 nal does not contain the record of the blooming of a single flower, 

 but all were still wrapped in the deep sleep of winter ; while in 

 the past year it commenced with the opening of the month. With 

 many plants there was more than a month's difference in the ap- 

 pearance of their blossoms. The contrast is very striking and 

 curious, to a lover of floral horticulture, or an observer of the pro- 

 gress of vegetation in different years. The following dates of 

 the blooming of plants, will contrast curiously with that pub- 

 lished for 1842. 



April 1st, crocus in bloom ; 2d, crown imperial two inches 

 high; 3d, snow fell two inches deep; 4th, blackbird and martin 

 appear; 8th, snowdrop in bloom; 14th, Hepatica triloba ; 19th, 

 early hyacinth; 20th, Aronia botryapium, or Juneberry; 21st, 

 crown imperial ; 22d, Sanguinaria Canadensis ; 23d, hyacinth ; 

 24th, peach tree begins to open its flowers on the sunny side of 



