And I copied the following from a New York paper:—
"Wednesday, the 14th of May, the mercury in Fahrenheit rose to 91 degrees, The Saturday night following, there was a severe frost. The next Tuesday and Wednesday, the mercury rose to 85 degrees; from the 20th to the 26th, it has been nearly stationary, varying only from 60 to 64.: Easterly wind, and rain."
These violent transitions from heat to cold, are produced by means of the N.W. wind, which in this country is the most keen and severe of any that is to be met with on the face of the globe. It is much the most prevalent wind we have, and seldom fails to blow four or five days with great uniformity. This wind is perfectly dry, and so uncommonly penetrating, that I am convinced it would destroy all the plagues of Egypt in a very short time. You may recollect, I informed you of the astonishing effect of this powerful agent in stopping the yellow fever in a few hours, last year, at Baltimore.
Neither the prevalence, nor uncommon severity of this wind has been properly accounted for; but we may now expect something more satisfactory on this subject, from the celebrated Volney; who is here endeavouring to investigate the causes of this, and other phenomena, relative to the winds of this continent.
Our heats in summer are sometimes very great; but the excess seldom exceeds three days; the rotation is generally as follows; the first day perhaps the mercury rises to 86, the next to 90, and the 3rd to 97, and sometimes, though very rarely, to upward of 100 then comes a thunder gust, which restores the air to it's usual summer temperature, till another three days period of excessive heat begins and ends in the same manner, at intervals, through the season. The succession of the degree of cold in winter is exactly the same: I never knew the excess exceed three days; not that we have then a thaw but that the weather is moderate, till another excess commences of three days.
On these occasions the mercury sometimes descends to 10 or 12 degrees below 0. Rivers a mile broad are frozen over in one night, and the bay of Chesapeak traversed in waggons and sleighs!
Though this climate, compared with that of England, is not in my opinion on the whole so good, yet it possesses many advantages, such as the clearness of the atmosphere, greater equality of the length of the days, and certainty of settled weather; for though the transitions are more violent, they are by no means so frequent as in England; where you have the wind from every point of the compass, and experience all the seasons of the year in twenty-four hours!
Recollect these observations on the climate of America are confined to the middle states, including Virginia in this description. Those of the north, and south, are somewhat different; but I am informed the country to the S.W. of the Allegany Mountains is materially different. The distance the N.W. wind has to travel to this country, and the opposition it meets with from those mountains, in a great measure meliorates and destroys those penetrating qualities, which make this wind so formidable to the Atlantic States. I have heard so many extraordinary accounts of the South-western territory, that I have long made up my mind to visit that country: two trifling reasons alone prevented me; viz. want of time and money; and from some disagreeable intelligence I have lately received from Wells, instead of climbing the Allegany, I apprehend I shall soon be obliged to cross the Atlantic; in which case, I shall have the pleasure of returning you thanks in person for your obliging attention to my order concerning the……….. which I received by the Peggy.
At present I must content myself by assuring you of my being
Your obliged friend, &c.