192 BIRDS — PECULIAKITIES OF C1.IMATE. 



" Th» lake rapidly imbibing heat at this seasou, becomes a safeguard against any 

 sabseqnent verualfrost. Its influence was manifested in a satisfactory manner early in 

 the present season. On the 1st of May, spring seemed to be fully established; fruit 

 trees had blossomed and in some localities young fruits had formed. The morning 

 was cold and the temperature declined during the day and evening. At 2 o'clock P.M., 

 it was 48'^ Fahrenheit ; at 7, 34° ; and at 9, 'ii°. The atmosphere was calm and clear, 

 indicating to an experienced observer the approach of a destructive frost, At 10 o'clock 

 P.M., it had risen to 40° ; a heavy cloud of haze hung about twenty degrees above the 

 lake and soon overspread the whole horizon. The morning of the following day was 

 warm and misty ; by la o'clock A.M., it was clear and spring-like. Not a fruit germ was 

 injured ou the lake shore. A different state of things occurred throughout the west and 

 south-west, where no IocaI influences interfered. The temperature steadily declined, 

 without intermission, during the day and night, down to about 26°. The day following 

 was cold and blighting, and fruits were generally destroyed, 



" The modes by which the lake exerts its iniiuence on such occasions do not appear to 

 be uniformly the same at different times. 



"On the approach of a cold night, as in the instance above noticed, the warm emana- 

 tions condensing may give off caloric, and obscure the atmosphere with haze, mist, or 

 clouds, when no frost will occur. 



"Under circumstances apparently similar, on the approach of a cold night, neither 

 haze, mist nor clouds may form, but a stiff breeze springs up, and the stars become un- 

 usually brilliant. The thermometer vacillates between 30° and 38°, rising with gusts 

 of wind, and fall lug during the intervals of calm. Then no frosts will appear, 



"Again, none of those modifying causes may intervene, but the temperature may fall 

 below freezing-point, ice form on the surface of the water, and the expanded fruit, 

 leaves, and blossoms congeal. Under such circumstances, the first rays of the rising 

 snn, the next morning, will be arrested by a haze, which will soon thicken, and before 

 noon a warm rain will probably fall. The frost will he abstracted so gradually from 

 frozen vegetation as not to impair its yitality, 



"These contingenoes have all occurred within the period of our observations. The 

 year 1834 proved an exception. The general cold prevailed over the local warmth of 

 the lake ; freezing weather continued two or three days, and fruits were out off, even to 

 the shure of the lake. 



"In autumn, this great body of water begins to part with its warmth to the colder 

 incumbent atmosphere, and the process continues during the winter. While its prog- 

 ress is most rapid strong westerly winds prevail at the earth's snrfaoe, while volumes of 

 clouds, at a high elevation, may at the same time be moving rapidly in an opposite di- 

 rection. 



"These counter-currents have sometimes given origin to a phenomenon in the city of 

 Cleveland, not well understood by all of its good citizens. The vane of the lofty spire 

 of the Baptist church, standing on a high ridge of ground, may point steadily to the 

 north, while that on the low cupola of the First Presbyterian church, situated on a less 

 elevated plateau, may be directed to an opposite point of the compass, with a stiff 

 southerly breeze at the same time. Cold north winds begin to prevail about the middle 

 of October. The emanations from the lake then begin to condense and pass off to the 

 south, in the form of thick clouds, without discharging, at first, much rain. About the 

 20th of October the cold from the north seems to gain the ascendency ; squalls of rain, 

 bail, and rounded snow appear alternately, with intervals of clear and warm weathee. 



