/ 



lt)t) 



UNITED STATES. 



rushing, and terminating at the place whence it pro- 

 ceeded.* 



From the greater prevalence of the south-west 

 wind along the Mississippi, Ohio, and adjacent re- 

 gions flows a simple and natural solution of the pro- 

 blem, why the temperature of the Western Country 

 is hotter by three degrees of latitude than that of the 

 Atlantic Coast, though only separated from it by the 

 Alleghany mountains. Another consequence of the , 

 prevalence of the south-west wind being the cause of 

 a higher temperature, will be, that it will extend the 

 sphere of this temperature so much the farther, the 

 greater the facility with which it can pervade the 

 country, A more speedy improvement of the climate 

 may be therefore expected in this quarter, than in 

 places much farther south on the other side of the 

 mountains : an improvement which will be felt in 

 proportion as the forests are cut down, that now 

 check the course of the aerial stream. And indeed 

 this cause has already begun to produce the effect, 

 since the period of the river's being shut up by ice 

 is near a month later than when Canada was first 

 colonized ; and instead of insuring vessels on condi- 

 tion of their leaving the river by the end of Novem- 



* The facts respecting the great snow storm of February, 1802, and 

 January 1805, as collected by Dr. Mitchell, and published in the MecL 

 Repos. Hex. i, vol. 5, and Hex. ii, vol. 2d, confirm Dr. Franklin's 

 theory; but it nevertheless happens that storms sometimes com- 

 mence to windward; this was the case with the dreadful hurricane 

 which desolated our southern coast in September, 1804^ which arose 

 to windward in both north-eastern and south-eastern quarters, but it 

 appears that the latter was not near so rapid in its progress as that one 

 which took its origin to leeward. See a very accurate account of the 

 progress and effects of this storm in the Med. Repos, Hex, ii^ vol. i'h . 

 p. 354, 



