(F.) 



LOCAL CLIMATOLOGY. 



BY 



W. D. WILSON, D. D, 



PROFESSOR IN nOBART COLLEGE. 



The climate of every locality has certain peculiarities of its 

 own, which, while they are interesting on their OAvn account, are 

 valuable, also, as material towards a general knowledge of the 

 causes which affect and control the diversities of climate in all the 

 different and varied regions of the globe. These facts are of such 

 a nature that no one observer can possibly observe them all, or 

 even any considerable portion of them, by himself alone, unaided 

 by other co-laborers in the same field of science. They must be 

 obtained by a long-continued series of observations ; observations 

 that must be carefully made, intelligibly recorded, computed and 

 averaged day by day to some extent, and which especially should 

 not be interrupted or omitted for a single day, or even a single 

 period in that day at which observations are to be made. They 

 must also be obtained in many different places at the same time ; 

 and hence the necessity for co-laborers, and many of them too, in 

 all parts of the world. 



It is to aid in this work that I make the followin^: contribution. 



The temperature, or amount of solar heat, in any place depends 

 upon the following variables : 



I. Latitude, or distance from the equator ; 

 II. Elevation above the sea level ; 



III. Distance from the sea coast ; 



IV. Situation in reference to mountain ranges, &c. ; 

 V. Situation in reference to inland lakes, &c. 



Under the third head, inland distance, I shall also speak of the 

 influence of sea currents upon those places that are situated near 

 the sea coast. 



I. Latitude. Every body knows that the weather is warmer in 

 summer than in winter ; and everybody is also probably aware 

 that this depends upon the fact that the days are longer than in 

 the winter, no less than upon the fact that the sun " 7'wis Idgher^^'' 

 as the expression is. But it may not have occurred to all persons 



