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Show .. EMIGRANT'S GUIDE. F e b ruary. Il'• Janu".... ry , 180'>· ,* tile ice in that river ra ther t.x c.e eued t t -tu·o inches in thickness. There is seldom more than SIX mches owf esnm ·;'Iwf al tiJe same time; but the seven•t y o f' L th t l:'t h1e ~ea er a 0 .• I · · l,.,t ·tltJde thir1y-eight de urees twt>uty-four mmut -s north, IS ..JOUIS' If) ., b . l f N geuerally about tbe same a~ in the back parts oi t 1e tate o _ ew Jersey. The mercury frequ~ntly falls below .o; and the co·l·d k e.~ ps it depressed <JS low as ten or f1fteen degrees for several wecl,.s d uuu~ each winter. . If the cold in these regions in winter is g~eater than m the sat~i parallcl.s of latitude on the sea coast, the beat 111 summer .bears a ploportiunate incre a~ e. We cann~t eslituate the d<'~ re c s ~i lu~a t by any l't'aular tbPrmomt trica! observations for any number ~· years.t But in the summer of 1805, a thermometer was 5<u·;pended m a brge drawing roum at St. I..,ouis, ag.ainsl a stone p~rtiti o o wall, ;u~J c_o 11 s t aut~y in a current of air; <tnJ trom the last o_i .J uue to the ?r~ t ot A ~1 g u .. t, the mercury frcrl'umtly ruse to nin e ty - ~ 1x J egrees, / \no fr qu n.t'y r~m · ineJ at that point several huurs of the day. I he .heats . 111 thti quarter while they continue, are supposed to Lc more oppres:: n'e than tbo ·e in tbc Miss issippi territory ; owing, perhaps, to th ~ greater co11-. <..('u1ralio11 of the rays of the sun in the deep anJ spac iOIJS val ley ?t the Mi ·issippi. They continue, however, only about. t\VO. mo11tb .. m t~ac h y ear in upper Lou isiaua; where as, they rage w1th v10lence for at least lour month!'5 at ~ atchez.' 't . Mr. StoJdard expres.· ly gives hi :; opinion in page 2~35 of Ius work, tl1at the be ats are gn:ater in lhe M bs i:-isippi vall ey tl1 dn on tbe ~t la ~ltic coast in similar latitud e:,, anJ then proJ uces \·l'eli authenticated i Hcts which demon ~ tr a te directly the reverse. . 1\l 'r. Voluey entered the Qhio val ley with an opinion .o~ its comp;t~atJve rrreater heat wbf'll coutr(lste ~l with til Atlant1c de cii\'Jty, and w1thout ·~tternpting to hazard a uuu !Jt of tl e corre~ tne~ · of the tl!eory, elllers i11to tbe fullo"''ing detail; the mnre matcn al parts of w.l11ch we ... IJave translated from the ori ~ itJ:il as IH~ :1rly lite ral as poss Jule: W_e are tl1e mote assurc,d of' the inuulgrn re of the reader, to the ms ~rtwn of thi, arti cle, a, it is tile b<~se of t!JP opinions heiJ upon the rl11~ate of a very interesting porti on of our. ~ountry_, by a l ~rws t .'dl fot'eJgners, and even uy many C.llrlOil gst the CltiZClhi of the Umted St<ltes. . '' B!:hold one ot' tuost s i n~u l a r ' ti •s in natu re , th C1t deserves the .m~J.c attention, as 1 am unin l or m ~ J of its ha,'ing been J escri beJ. uutJI tnJs time with a!l its cir ~ u m~ta nce s. f'or tbe princi pal fact l will borrow the wurJs of Mr. J elfer son io his Notes on Virgi1 ia." t1 ThP hi (ory of t he atmospheric changes of the year 1805 ·m L Olll· S·I ~~a, is. a striking con rn e ntary upon the routine of tbe sea~ ons in thHt cuuntr-y. lh_e ~w~ tit or of this tre ntbw w a~; thf!n at Opelousas; and can perf ectly remember t 13 atuew ' ' t:Hr, loPti, tll!lt cotton, mnllein, and tobacco were all in full u.loodma. Ti. le samJe was the Cii eat l atchez, tlt t IJ e samP. tr. me. '1'11 e •U ti tl J 01' I'CCl' JVC letter from a fr ,enJ at that plAce , dated about the 25th Decemuer, 1805, w1 • ere· iJ, the,e facts were expresf-- iy ::.lHted. . ] •ver Abont the lOth .Jt\IIUf!t·y, 1806, a very intense fl'Ost set w that. rle,;tmycft ~- ,! vegeta~lc lm. ble to <iestl·ucti.O ll from cold.; the pon ds au d stagn1:1 11 t PM t .o lder.e th"e were fl·ozen ; the latter pnrt of tbe wtnter was altematcly wet t>r co , spring very bnckward, and the ensuing summer rainy. t S e pl"1ge 235. + Stodtlartl's Louisiana, page 239. J E·~HG RANT 'S GUIDE .. ' h is remarkaule, that proceeding on the same pnrallel of latitude westwardly, the climate becomes colder in like manner as when you proceed northwardly. 'fbis con tinues to be the case tiH you attain the summit of the AJeghany, which is the hi ghe~t land between the ocean and the ltli ·sissippi. From thence, descending in the same latitude to the Mississippi, the change reverses ; anu, if we may believe travellers, it becomes warmer there than in the same latitude on the sea side. Their testimony is strcngt.beneJ by tbe vegetables and animals wbich subsist and multiply there naturally, and do not on our sea-coast. Thus catalpas grow spontaneously on the Missiseippi, as far as the latitude of 07°, and reeJs as far as 38°. Parro< luets even winter on the Sci ota, in the 3~th degree of latitude. In the summer of 1779, when the thermometer was at 90° at l\ionticello, and 96° at \Vi11iarnsburg, it was 110 at K ~s kas kia.'* "As a traveller," says Mr. Volney,. " I cau confirm and develope the assertion of Mr. J efferson. In the tr·ajet, that I made in the summN of 1796, from Washington ou the Potomac to Vincennes on tbt~ Wabash, I collected notes from which the principal results are the e. ''July lOth-At .Monticello, Mr. Jefferson's seat, wheat-harvest commenced on the lower slopes of the southwest mountain, whilst on the opposite si Je, where exposed to th6 northwest, towards CbarJottesviHe, wheat-harvest did not commence before the 12th or 14th of the month.t "July 1Oth-Harvest at Rockfish gap, on the summit of the blue ridge, 1150 English feet high; two days sooner, harvest commenced in the valley of Staunton, ~ ~)0 feet ]ower. ''July 12th-I-Ian·est on J acksurr's mountain, 2200 feet above the level of the Atlantic ocean. "July 20th-Harvest on the Aleghany mountain, in places elevate~ Q600 feet above tbe ocean. " It is «een that in this ascending line, harvest is late in proportion to the elevation of the various places. "In descending the western slope of the Aleghany mountains, into the low rlain of Green Briar, 1 learned that harvest had commenced '" on the 15th of July. "[n the V3iley of the Great Kenhawa, at the mouth of the Elk r~ver? ( found harvest began on the 6th July, and on tbe 11th at GaIJpolls, a French colony on the Ohio : and at Cincinnati, situated ntore to the nortu, ou the 15th of J uly.t lj~?tcs on Virginia, page 11-1. t lhe ditfet·encc given here of 12 or 14 days, in openjng of harvest, in so short a distunce, appenrs incredible; but if only partially correct, afl'ords a ~t:ong t·efutation of the opiuions of its author, aud a conlirmation of the theory latd ~o' n iu the pages of tbi~ trc~atise. Shelte1· aud e:rposure seems to have presented their cfti!cts to Mt·. Volney at hi& outstd, and ought to have led bim to doubt a bypotllf:sis, that would suppose, tuot in the Ohio valley, the same caus~~ thut t1peratcd so rcmm·ksbly at Monticello would produce reverse U'ects at Vmcermes. J It woultl not be cr·edible without his own testimony, that Mr. Volney could, ~lth the ~acts before him, suppose that tbe olimnte was comparatively wmmer )n.th~ Ohto valley than on tbe Atlantic decl.ivily. Between Monticello and ~tncmnati, tbere ii a clitferenco of latitude of about one degree, and following |
