NEW ENGLAND. 



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8. Climate. New England is subject to great extremes of temperature. The winters are 

 much colder, and the summers hotter than under the same parallels in Europe. Greece and 

 Italy cannot boast of more exquisite days than the summer and autumn here exhibit ; and the 

 most foggy, ice-bound region of the north, does not endure a more disagreeable visitation than 

 the cold mists of a New England spring. The climate is more open and more varying on the 

 coast than in the interior. In the severest cold of winter, every lake and river is frozen, and most 

 of the harbors on the coast are sometimes hermetically sealed. The northwest winds, at this time, 

 usually blow from one to four days, and slacken at sunset. When they cease, the sky grows 

 cloudy, and rain or snow follows. The northeast winds are very tempestuous, and seldom blow 

 24 hours, without bringing rain or snow. The southeast winds are violent ; they generally bring 

 rain, and are soon over. 



The heavy snowstorms seldom happen before the middle of December. The rains, which 

 have previously fallen in abundance, having saturated the earth with water, the preparations for 

 winter seem now to be complete. After a few days of clear weather, attended with warm 

 southerly breezes, a cloud is seen gathering in the south. The sun, however, rises unobscured, 

 but, in a short time, the whole sky is overcast with thin, gray clouds. The air grows sensibly 

 colder. The farmer is seen carefully housing some of his cattle, and the people are many of 

 them busy in gathering into the house an ample stock of wood. The snow now begins to fall 

 in small particles, and descends in a noiseless and almost invisible manner. But the clouds 

 gradually thicken and sweep more rapidly to the north, the wind slowly rises, and, in the course 

 of an hour, the whole atmosphere seems filled with myriads of round flakes, which come slant- 

 ing and swift to the earth. 



The work thus seriously begun is not remitted, and mountain and valley are soon wrapped 

 in an interminable sheet, which sometimes spreads from the southern shore of Connecticut to 

 the Polar Sea. Throughout the day, the snow falls incessantly, and at night, the howling of 

 the tempest and the rattling of the snow against the windows, give evidence to the comfortable 

 inmates of the houses, of the work that is going on abroad. The morning comes, and the sun 

 is shining upon the glittering surface of nature. But the wind is still high, and the air is in- 

 tensely cold. The snow is driven like small clouds through the air, and drifted into innumera- 

 ble heaps. But at length the wind is abated, and the snow being two or three feet deep, the 

 inhabitants set about clearing the paths around their dwellings. They then go into the streets 

 with their horses and cattle, and break out the public roads. The sleighs are then brought 

 forth, and the merry bells are soon heard in every direction. 



There is one spectacle exhibited by a New England winter, which perhaps surpasses all 

 others in beauty and splendor. It occasionally happens, that the rain is congealed by the cold 

 as it falls, and thus every object is covered with ice. The bending trees are loaded 

 with it, and, as the storm generally clears off in the night, every twig and bough is glittering in 

 the sun, as it rises. The beholder often sees before him a whole forest thus converted in one 

 night, as if by enchantment, into trees of crystal, each flashing with the beauty and brilliancy of 

 a thousand diamonds. 



In the depths of winter, the rays of the sun, falling upon the wide, uninterrupted covering of 

 snow, produce a dazzling brilliancy, that is almost insupportable. A moonlight at this season 

 is equally remarkable, and its effects can be more easily endured. The moon is nearly the 

 same with that moon of Naples, which the Italian told the king of England was " superior to his 

 Majesty's sun." When the surface of spotless snow is shone upon by the moon at its full, and 

 reflects back its beams, the light, indeed, is not that of day, but it takes away all appearance 

 of night. 



If the spring is the finest season in Europe, it is the most unpleasant in New England. No 

 weather can be more capricious. Fogs, showers, and sunshine checker the whole period. The 

 summer is brought by the southwest wind, which is the true zephyr of New England, and is the 

 prevailing breeze of the warm season. This season begins with a clear sky, a hot sun, and a 

 rapid vegetation. 



Among the mo.;t beautiful phenomena of our seasons, may be reckoned those exhibited by 

 the summer thunderstorm. In the minds of many persons, these only create a nervous dread ; 

 but to an observer who loves to contemplate nature in her sublimer moods, and draws inspira- 

 tion even from a sense of danger, we know of nothing that is better suited to excite admiration. 

 Droughts are unfrequent in New England ; the forests of the mountain sides attract the moist- 



