6S 



UNITED STATES. 



31 degrees above the freezing point : at Surinaiti, 

 near the sea-coast, its range is fronm 15 to 2r degrees. 

 According^, travellers, coming from these latitudes 

 ill Siin[)mer, find the heat grows more insupportable 

 as they proceed northward. 



It is true, that, on approaching the AUeghanies, 

 and still more on ascending their summits, the air, 

 being brisker and more elastic, renders the heat 

 more agreeable, though there it is frequently scorch- 

 ing. But, in general, in what are called the tempe- 

 rate zones, particularly in low and damp places, it is 

 more disagreeable than what are termed hot coun- 

 tries : and it is also a fact, that the climate is more 

 equal in the torrid zone, than in the temperate zones; 

 and would be more favourable to health, and to the 

 vital power, v/ere not the air frequently corrupted 

 by the exhalations from stagnant waters, and from 

 substances in a state of putrefaction ; and did not 

 foreigners, in particular Europeans, carry with them 

 that greediness of animal food, and abuse of spiritu- 

 ous liquors, which heat will not allow wit4i impu- 

 nity. 



Mr. Volney objects to the practice, and with pro- 

 priety, of the English and American meteorologists, 

 who, when they mention these extremes of heat and 

 cold, are accustomed to deduce from them a mean 

 term. A better mode of estimating the fundamen- 

 tal temperature of a country would be that propos- 

 ed by Mr. Wiliiams, who takes, as the basis of this 

 temperature, the natural and permanent warmth, of 

 the earth i the measure of which he seeks in the air 

 and water, either of wells or of the deepest caverns^ 



