CLIMATE, 



Tfhis is one of those singularities, that deserves so 

 much the more attention, as I do not know that it 

 has ever yet been described with all its circum- 

 stances. For the principal fact, I shall borrow 

 the words of Mr. Jefferson, in his Notes on Virginia^ 

 p. 125. 



It is remarkable, (says Mr. Jefferson), that, pro- 

 cee .Ing on the same parallel of latitude westwardly, 

 the climate becomes colder in like manner as when 

 you proceed northwardly. This continues to be the 

 case, till you attain the summit of the Alleghany, 

 which is the highest land between the ocean and the 

 Mississippi, From thence, descending in the same 

 latitude, to the Mississippi, the change reverses ; 

 and if we may believe travellers, it becomes warmer 

 there, than it is in the same latitude on the sea- 

 side. Their testimony is strengthened by the vege- 

 tables which subsist and multiply there naturally, 

 and do not on our sea-coast. Thus catalpas grow 

 spontaneously on the Mississippi, as far as the lati- 

 tude of 37 deg. and reeds as far as 38 deg. Par ro- 

 quets even Winter on the Scioto, in the 39th deg. 

 of latitude. In the Summer of 1799, when the ther- 

 mometer was at 90 deg. at Monticeilo, and 96 deg. 

 at Wiiliamsburgh, it was 110 degrees at Kaskas- 

 kia. 



Mr. Volney confirms Mr. Jefferson's assertion by 

 his own observations, during a journey from Wash- 

 ington on the Potowmac, to St. Vincent's on the 

 Wabash.... 



This second line from the Alleghanies (says Vol- 

 ney) does not exhibit the same regularity, in appear- 

 ance, as the preceding, no doubt in consequence of 



