Another cause which contributes to produce a warmer climate, especially in the winter season, in the valley of the Ohio, is, that several considerable streams which empty themselves into the Ohio, have their sources on the highlands, a great distance to the south of it; for instance, the Great and Little Sandy, and the Great and Little Kenhawa, which descending from a warm region of country, their waters contribute to keep the Ohio open in winter.
But these causes are by no means sufficient to produce the one half of the comparative warmth of climate observable in the immediate vicinity of this invaluable river. To prove that the climate is much milder in the southern than in the northern part of this state, I will proceed to mention several facts, which have fallen under my own observation.
In the latter part of last February I was at the town of Delaware, on the Whetstone Branch of the Scioto river, between eighty and ninety miles south of Lake Erie, and twenty-five miles north of Columbus, the seat of government, which is near the centre of the state, where I saw a number of gentlemen direct from Detroit, by the way of Lower Sandusky, who informed me that the snow at that time was eighteen inches in depth and upwards all along the lake shore, but gradually decreased as they came south until they arrived at Delaware. At that place it was then about twelve inches deep in the open fields, and somewhat deeper in the woods. I descended the road along the Whetstone to Columbus, the snow decreasing in depth all the way as I proceeded. At Columbus it wholly disappeared in the fields, and only ice was found in the road, which also decreased until I came to the Big Walnut Creek, thirteen miles south of Columbus, where it disappeared, and the road began to be muddy. As I still proceeded south, the mud increased in depth until I came to Chillicothe, about thirty-two miles south of Big Walnut, where the frost was entirely out of the ground, and the roads were almost impassable. As I still descended southward, along the Scioto, I found that at Piketon, on the Scioto, nineteen miles south of Chillicothe, the road had considerably improved. I proceeded onwards to Portsmouth on the Ohio river, at the mouth of the Scioto, about twenty-six miles south of Piketon, where the ground was entirely settled, and the innkeeper, where I lodged, was making his garden, sowing his sallad seed, and planting his peas. This journey was performed in three days, and in travelling only one hundred and fifteen miles from north to south, this extraordinary difference of climate was observed.
A traveller may leave Portsmouth when the farmer is beginning to hoe his corn the first time, and travel with good speed to Delaware, and find the husbandman just beginning to plant.
Instances which have fallen within my own personal observation might be multiplied to a great extent, but a few may suffice.
Generally speaking, there is a difference in the beginning and ending of the warm season of about two weeks between Portsmouth and Delaware, or of three weeks between the former place and Lower Sandusky.
In relation to the warmth of the climate, I will state two other facts, originating, as I believe, in the prevalence of the southern current of air from the Mexican Gulf along the Ohio river.
First, In the summer months the paroquet ascends the Scioto more than one hundred miles from its mouth, and until within a few years past, wintered at Miller's Bottom, and at other places along the banks of the Ohio, near its great southern bend in latitude 38° north, in Gallia and Lawrence counties, in the state of Ohio. I have seen them there in all the winter months in considerable numbers, but few however now winter there; and probably if the cold northwestern current of air from the great lakes becomes more and more prevalent in the winter months, these birds will migrate altogether to a more southern clime.
Are these birds found as far to the north on the east side of the Alleghany by at least three degrees? Monsieur Volney, Mr. Jefferson, and others, say not. It has been denied that this fact proves any thing more than that this bird frequented these parts in quest of its favourite food. This food is grass and other vegetable matter in summer, and the cockle bur, and the balls of button-wood, or, as by a perversion of language, it is called in this country sycamore.[42] But this bird may find its favourite food as well east as west of the Alleghanies. The grasses and trees alluded to, flourish as I have observed in forty-five degrees of north latitude, and I am credibly informed that they are abundant as far north as Quebec, and even around Hudson's Bay. Wherever waters run and trees grow on their banks, (if low and wet,) on the American continent, even as high as eighty degrees of north latitude, there the paroquet may find its food in abundance.
Another fact tending to establish the same point is, that the reed cane, before this country was much settled, grew in a higher latitude by several degrees on this than it did on the other side of the Alleghany mountains. It has indeed been said, that this cane was never found north of the Ohio, nor above the mouth of the Big Sandy River, which empties into the Ohio, on the line which separates Virginia and Kentucky. This however is incorrect; for within a few years it was growing in abundance at Miller's Bottom, twenty-six miles above the mouth of Big Sandy. It grew at Lancaster, on the Hockhocking, northward of the mouth of the Big Sandy, in a direct line, at least one hundred and fifty miles, and it now grows on the Whetstone branch of the Scioto, more than two degrees of latitude above the lowest bend of the Ohio, which is at the mouth of the Big Sandy. Before the white people settled there, I have every reason to believe, that the cane grew in great plenty at Delaware, where there are more signs of buffaloes than at any other place within my knowledge. It has been conjectured, that the seed of the cane was brought down and scattered by the Big Sandy; but granting this, in what way could that stream carry this seed up the Hockhocking and Scioto to their sources? to places several hundred feet above the highest freshes ever known in this country? With a knowledge of these facts, cast your eye at the map of Ohio. Proofs within my reach might be multiplied to a much greater extent, but they are probably unnecessary.