CLIMATE 



75 



of the Ohio and Mississippi ; in other words, those 

 trees and plants, which require a warm climate, 

 and Winters less cold, and of shorter duration, are 

 found 3 deg. farther north on the west of the Alleg- 

 hanies, than to th§ east on the Atlantic coast : thus, 

 cotton, which , succeeds at Cincinatti and fort Vin- 

 cent's, in the latitude of 39 deg. has not yet been 

 found capable of cultivation in the Carolinas far- 

 ther north than 35 or 36 degrees. It is the same 

 with the catalpa, sassafras, papaw, paean or illinois 

 nut, and many other trees and plants, a particular 

 enumeration of which would reguire more skill in 

 this branch of natural history than I possess. * 



The Winter does not commence till the approach 

 of the solstice, and the cold weather is felt only in 

 the forty or fifty days succeeding it. Even then it 

 is not fixed and constant, but there are intervals of 

 temperate and warm days. The thermometer does 

 not fajl, in general, lower than 5 or 6 degrees below 

 the freezing point. The frosts, which at first show 

 themselves a few days in October, disappear,, return 

 again toward the end of November, cease again, 

 and do not become settled till toward January : the 

 brooks, little rivers, and standing waters, then 

 freeze, but seldom continue frozen over more than 

 from three to fifteen days. 



Throughout the year the prevailing wind is the 

 south-west ; being the current that ascends the 

 course of the Ohio, and comes by the way of the 

 Mississippi, where its prevailing direction is south, 



• This is a great mistake. Cotton comes to perfection as far north 

 as New Castle county, Delawsu:« state. The other trees bear the cli- 

 mate of Pennsylvania. 



