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Show TRAVELS TTl OUGI1 NORTII .. \M E RICA: From D .. ltimorc I return ·d to Phil· d..:l phia, \\ 'v r · I arr;v cl on th fomt~.-c; 1 th (Ly of June, aftlr havin ;; b:.:"n ahi"-:nt about thrc<.: mon~h s . Duri,rr the wlwlc or thnt 1· cri r)d tl .: Wc:J thcr 1 ;HI been c trcmely va-t> ri:'.hl ·, ( -.m :cly ever rcnuining nl ib: fou r d.1ys tog ·tll r. A<> c1r y as t.l\! fou: te: nth of 1\l.trch, in Penn(ylv llli,t, J<',L;Hcnh t it's th c rnwm ~ t r 1lou l at 6 5 • at noon day, th,)ngh not mor · th;ln :i wu.l· before it ha 1 ken tt> Jew a 1 ~o· 1\t the l.ltter end uf the month, in M,trybnd, I fc J rccly ever obfCrv d it higher tlun soo at noon: the, cverJirws were always cold, and th, w ·ather was ftJU:tlly 1nd wet. In the llOrt 1crn nee! o · Virginia, for two C>r three cby. together, during Ll c fi-e nd cc.:k in An1il it rofc from Bo" to 84o, in the midJlc f the day; but on the wind l ' fuddcnly ihif it g, it fi-ll agnin, :l!Hl r~maillcd below 70~ for fome (bys. As I l afrecl ;1ltll1" tbr u.:;h tl1c lower parts of Virgillia, 1 frequcnlly af'terwards ob!ervcd it as high as 8o" durir1g th m nth of April; hut on no day in the month of 1\1~1y, prcvi1)LI to the fourteenth, did it ag1in rife to the f:u11c height; ind ·cd, Ci 1:u· fi·om it, many of the clays were too cold to be without fires ; anJ. on the night of the ninth inflant, when I wa:5 in the ncighbourhoo I of the South-weft Mount.tins, fo Gw·p a froft tool· ph e, tl1a.t it dcflro;ed all the dH.:rrics, and al(u mo{l of the early wheat, and of the youn~ ihoots of Indian corn; in fomc p.trticular places, for miles together, the yourw l·aves of the fureft tr es cvcn were all withered, and the country had exactly the: ppearance of Nov~n , bcr. On the tenth infia.nt, the day after the froft, the thcrrn0'1)Ctcr was as lo v as 46" in the middle of the d:ty; yet four days afterward it il:ood at 81°. During the remainder of the month, and during June, llntil I reached Philadelphia, it flucluated between 6oo and ~o"; the weather was on the whole fine, but frequently for a day or two together the air felt extrcm ly raw and dif.1gree:1blc. The cha.ngcs in the fiatc of the atmofphere were alfo fometimcs very fuddcn. On the fixth day of June, when on n y w:1y to Frederic Town, after paffing the Patowmac River, the rnoft remarkable change f rhi na ure took place which I ever witncfil: l. The 1norning had been opprefiivcly hot; the thermometer at 8 "~ and the wind S. S. Vv. About on<.: o'clock in the afternoon, a bbck cloud appeared in the horizon, and a tremendous guil: came on, accompanied by § thunder C L I M A T E. thnmLr and lightning; fcv -r,1llarge trees were torn up hy the roots by the wind; hailll:oncs, a[ ,out three times the fizc of an ordinary pea, fdl for a few minutes, nnd aft<.:r vanL a torrer1 t of r.1in came pouring down, nearly a<:> if a ''1tcr-fpoL1t lud broken over head. Ju!l bl.:fore the guft ca1ne on, I hac! fufpendeJ my thermometer from a window with a northern aij)c{t, when it Hood at 81 °; but onlooking at it at the end of twenty-three minutes, hy whi h time the guft was completely over, I found it down to SCJ0 , a hangc or.· 22°. J\ north-weft wind now fct in, the evening was n oft dcligl tfu], and the th cnnon etcr :1gain rot"e to 6 f. Ir1 Pcnnfylvani. l the th~rmomcter has been know,, to vary fifty Lkgrees in the J})acc of t w c n t y-fi x l1 o u rs. The climate of the middle and fouthern {bt ·s is extremely vnriabl ; the feafons of t\\'O fnc ·ceding years ar~ fddom alike; and it ii arccly ever hnppens that a month paDcs over without very rrrr.at vicifhtudcs in the \vea ther taking place. Do or Rittl!nhoufc remarked, that "hdfl: he rcfickd in Pcnn(ylvani<, he diCcovcred nightly frofl:s in every month of the year xccpting] uly, and even in that month, during which the h at is< lw.1ys greater than at any other time f they ar, a cold day or two fi)mctimes intervene, when a fire i found very :1grecabl~. ' he cli1 1< tc of the {late f New Yprk is very fimibr to that of Pennfylvanin, e x-ccpting thnt in the northern parts of that Hate, bordcrino npon Canada, the winters ar alw:-~y s Jeverc and long. The climate of New Jerfc..:y, Delaware, and the upp r p•uts o[ J\r[arylan l, is a11o much the fu11c with that of Penniylv·mia; in the lower p:1r1s of rl yland the c:1imatc docs not differ materially from that of Viro·ill ia to the e,1ihvarcl of the l3lue Ridge, where it very rarely happens that the tb ·rmomder is as low as 6o above cipher. In Pcnnfylvania, the range of the mercury in Fahrenheit' ~ th ermometer has lec11 obfcrved tO be from 24° UcluW cipher tO 105" a 0 \'C 't; but it is an unufual occurrence for the mercury to fl:alld at eitbc:r of thd~ extreme points; in its approJch towards them it commonly draws much nearer to the extreme of he~lt than to that of cold. Durinsr the winter of 1795,:1 d the three prccc:-dingyear.,it did notfinklown than 10" .tbove cipher; a. fummcr however feldom p·dTes over thnt it does not rile to 96. |