West and North-west Winds of New-England. 308 
er, runs from Cape Florida to Newfoundland, with a grad- 
ual divergency from the shore. The air over the ocean, 
and peculiarly over the gulf stream, will naturally ascend ; 
being warmer, and therefore lighter, than that, over the 
land. That over the land, will of course move into the 
region, from which this ascent takes place; and thus will 
produce a Westerly wind. As this operation is continually 
going on ; there must necessarily be a very frequent suc- 
cession of these winds. Such is the regular state of facts. 
If these winds blow across the American Continent, it is ea- 
sily conceivable, that they must of course blow, also across 
a considerable division of the Pacific Ocean. The conse- 
quence of these facts would be, that they would come to 
the Eastern shore, fraught with whatever degree of cold 
was accumulated by the atmosphere, over the region which 
lay in their progress. A farther consequence would be, 
that whatever warmth they acquired on the Pacific Ocean, 
they would communicate first to the countries along the 
Western shore ; and then, in speedy succession, to all the 
countries between that and the Eastern. A third conse- 
quence would be, that they would be moist and chilly ; 
and a fourth, that those, which blew from the North-West 
and North, would be colder than those, which blew from 
the West. But none of these facts, unless perhaps the 
first, actually takes place. These winds are all uncom- 
monly dry. Those, which blow from the West, are colder 
than any other: and the warmth, which they could not 
fail to acquire from the Pacific Ocean, is never experien- 
ced on the Eastern coast. As these winds frequently blow 
in the winter from thirty to forty, and sometimes to fifty 
miles in an hour ; they would pass over this continent, in 
the latitude of New-England, where it is about 2700 miles 
wide in two, three, and fourdays. In this period, especially 
when twice or thrice repeated, the warmth could not fail to 
be perceived. But in the year 1780 the wind blew from the 
West more than six weeks, without any intermission ; and 
during the whole of this time was so cold, that the snow 
did not dissolve sufficiently to give drops from the southern 
eaves of houses. In 1791 a west wind began to blow on 
the 10th of November, and continued to blow till the 11th 
of January ; the weather during the whole time being in- 
tensely cold for the season; and the frost being uninter- 
