450 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
CLIMATE. 
The annual mean temperature in summer is 79.7°, which is about the same as the 
lowlands of Jamaica. The winter mean is about 50°. In northern Georgia the sum- 
mer mean is about 75.3°, the winter mean about 42.8°. In south Georgia the annual 
mean is 67.7° — summer, 81.3°; winter, 53.6°. In middle Georgia the annual mean is 
63.5° — summer, 79.2° ; winter, 47.2°. 
The mean temperature of Atlanta corresponds with that of Washington City, 
Louisville, and St. Louis. The extremes are seldom as great as in the Northern States, 
and sun strokes are less frequent. On the whole, the range of changes in climate is 
very wide, from the invigorating climate of the mountain to the rather debilitating 
climate of the South, modified, however, by the sea-breeze. 
“ The mountainous parts of the State lie in one degree of latitude, north of the 
thirty-fourth parallel. 
“ The Appalachian chain enters the State with several parallel lines of elevations; 
the highest of these, the Blue Ridge, has an altitude of over 3,000 to nearly 5,000 feet. 
“The Cohutta range continuous with the Unaka of Tennessee, 3,000 feet in alti- 
tude, with an abrupt escarpment toward Oostanaula on the west, lies about 20 miles 
west of the Blue Ridge. 
“ Next in orderon the northeast comes the Lookout and Sand Mountain, table-lands 
belonging to the Alleghany system. Between the principal ranges of mountains here 
enumerated are numerous minor elevations or ridges observing a general parallelism. 
These decrease in height towards the southwest, and ultimately die out, the most 
easterly ranges disappearing first, and the others in succession. The Blue Ridge, as 
an unbroken chain, extends only about one-third the distance across the State, termi- 
nating abruptly. The Cohutta range continues into Alabama in a low elevation, 
known as Dugdown Mountain, while the table land mountains, with their associated 
ridges, extend with decreasing altitudes many miles into Alabama.” 
DRAINAGE. 
“ The streams of the State flow either into the Atlantic Ocean or into the Gulf of 
Mexico. The divide between these water- sheds runs from the Okefinokee Swamp a 
northwesterly direction to Atlanta, whence it follows the Chattahoochee ridge a 
northeast direction to Habersham County, when it curves to the north, extending to 
Union County. 
Of the Gulf drainage the larger part flows directly to the Gulf through the Chatta- 
hoochee and the Coosa Rivers and their tributaries, while some smaller streams near 
the northern line of the State belong to the Mississippi drainage system. The divide 
between these systems runs a zigzag course, often crossing the trend of mountains 
and valleys from near the northwest to the northeast corner of the State, dipping 
into the States of Tennessee and North Carolina at several points. 
“ On the summits of some of the mountain peaks, as the Rabun Bald and Brasstown 
Bald, arctic insects are found. Of this belt Georgia has but a bare patch, however, 
extending into North Carolina.” 
