J^'otes on the Season. 253 
January, 1848, opened with all the mildness which had char- 
acterized the preceding months. New Years day was warm and 
wet, mud rather plenty, pansies in bloom, some plowing done. 
The second and third days were also warm; fomth, wind changed 
from S. W. to N. W., cold and piercing-, the seventh gave us 
an abundance of rain, and we were again immersed in mudj 
ninth, snowy, grows cold; tenth, colder; eleventh, mercury at 
22° below in the morning, the coldest day in the season; 
twelfth, mild; thirteenth, thawing; fourteenth, heavy fog, which 
continued nearly through the day; fifteenth, cooler, and continues 
so till the twenty-first, which, with the three succeeding days, were 
very fine; twenty -sixth, rain in the morning, and for a short time 
in the afternoon, fogo-y; twenty-seventh, a heavy rain, after 
which the weather grows cooler, and continues so until the end 
of the month. So January, month of strange caprices; — pre- 
senting an unusual intermingling of cold and heat, mud and hubs. 
The travelling through nearly the whole of the month was bad. 
The frequent changes of temperature were highly injurious to 
health, and influenzas were common and in many instances 
severe. 
February opened with a more winter like character; on the 
first, snow fell to the depth of 8 inches, this was the first fall of 
snow in the season of sufficient amount to make good sleighing. 
The storm cleared off mild, and the weather continued very fine 
until the fifth, when there was an additional fall of four inches* 
fifth, blustering, snow piled in all manner of forms and drifts of 
all sizes. The weather continued cool and a large proportion of 
the time blustering until fifteenth, when it becomes fine and con- 
tinues so until the nineteenth, when there was a fall of rain 
attended with a fogg}" atmosphere; twenty and twenty-one fine 
again, twenty-two, rain, twenty-three, pleasant, June like; twenty- 
eighth, at night snow fell 5 inches, from the southeast, and the 
twenty-ninth it was blown back to the southeast by a spiteful 
northwester. The quantity of snow that fell in February was 17 
inches, but was so thoroughly thrown into heaps as to afford but 
little pleasant sleighing. The month was even more winter-like 
in its temperature than either January or December. 
Whatever may be said of the rude and blusterino- habits of 
March, he this year has nobly sustained his character for rough- 
ness, especially in the days of his infancy. Rude tempests rocked 
his cradle and sighing winds sung his lullaby, we should think 
to his heart's content; but as he advanced in maturity, his char- 
acter became more amiable. But as a general trait, he was cold 
in his temperament and morose in his habits until the seventeenth, 
when, perhaps from the reflection that the strength of his manhood 
was past its noontide and his days fast numbering to their close, 
