Sequence of Winter Climate. 



277 



At all events, in speculating on the past we do well always to 

 seek for any present conditions which, if even multiplied by 

 twenty or more degrees of intensity, would in their ways 

 account for the above accumulations. As applied to the 

 climate of New Brunswick, it may be stated that the meteor- 

 ological conditions of the central and northern portions are 

 pretty regular in kind. The mean temperature of the year 

 may be put down at 44 Fahrenheit, the extremes attaining 

 rarely 30 below zero, and 98 in the shade. (See Appendix, 

 page 307.) The prevailing winds in the winter are from the 



north, and in summer from south and west. Snow averages 

 three feet for four months, and is deepest in the northern dis- 

 tricts, which are said to owe their greater fertility to that 

 circumstance. A thaw takes place with considerable regularity 

 shortly after New Year's Day, and when this is not the case 

 an unusally cold winter is certain to result, such as took place 

 in 1867-8. The cause of this sudden rise of temperature is 

 not apparent, unless the prevailing winds, being then from 

 south and east, might indicate a deviation of the regular at- 

 mospheric currents of South America, the West Indies, or 





