80 REPORT ON THE STATE CABINET. 



Were it not for the softening influence of these lakes, it can hardly be 

 doubted that our winters would be on the average at least 10° colder 

 than they now are, or as cold as they are in Asia just east of the Caspian 

 sea, where there is a gap in the great mountain chain between the 

 Caucasus and Hindoo Cush, in what are known as the plains or steppes 

 of Mayntsch, where the average temperature for the three winter 

 months, December, January and February, is only 15° above zero, and 

 periods are not unfrequent with the thermometer 25° and 30° below 

 zero for several days in succession. But owing to the influence of these 

 inland lakes, we have along their border and around them, spring as 

 early, autumn frosts as late, and winter as mild, as in central Pennsyl- 

 vania ; while in the region along the south boundaries of New York and 

 in the northern tier of Pennsylvania counties, the summers are some two 

 or tliree Aveeks shorter, and the winters five or six degrees colder. 



Besides the foregoing general principles, there are many details of 

 local climatology that can be obtained only by long continued and careful 

 observations in each place; and such observations, when published in 

 large numbers and from a large number of places, will undoubtedly 

 furnish facts from wdiich further generalizations and laws can be deduced. 

 But the observations should be published in full: no abridgment or sum- 

 mary will answer. 



As illustrating what I mean, I will refer to a generalization partially 

 made by myself, and arrested in its progress towards completion for 

 want of the very material I have referred to. In summer we often have 

 days of great intensity of heat; and in winter, in like manner, days of 

 greater cold than mere astronomical forces can account for. Now, when- 

 ever we had, at Geneva, a day in which the thermometer has fallen to 

 6° or 7° below zero, or more, I have found the following phenomena, 

 observed here. First. The wind has always passed from a southwesterly 

 direction to west, northwest, north, northeast, and in nearly if not 

 quite all cases it passed by way of east round to southwest again ; and 

 if it were blowing very strong, as happens in about half the instances, 

 when it started from the southwest, it gradually lulled down and 

 became very slight as it reached north. Secondly. The barometer com- 

 menced rising as the wind began to change and the cold to increase, and 

 continued to rise until it reached a very high point. Last winter it 

 reached the unprecedented height of 30.504 inches. Thirdlij. At night 

 the sky has been generally clear, so as to allow unobstructed radiation 

 by cooling; and in the daytime the sky has been overcast, so as to 



