months, no accurate determination can be derived from them. The most prominent occurrence is a transition of 38° in six hours. Dr. Ramsay has observed elsewhere a change of 50°, in the space of fifteen hours. These sudden alterations are disagreeable to the sense of feeling, and injurious to the health.
It is the popular belief that the greatest cold usually occurs about sunrise, and the greatest heat about 3 P.M. The most sudden changes are from cold to heat, the transition from heat to cold not being so instantaneous. Except for the gradual progress of this change, it would be more sensibly felt, and more dangerous.
The absence of figured icicles from the insides of windows was mentioned in a former letter. Up to the present time, I have never seen any of these incrustations in America,—a certain proof of the dryness of the atmosphere during frost. In summer, rains are not frequent, but when they do happen, they generally fall in torrents. They are often attended by easterly winds, and are partially distributed, drenching small tracts of country, and leaving adjoining parts dry. During the summer of 1819, some parts of the country suffered under a severe and long continued drought. The blades of the crops of maize became shrivelled, the grass, and afterwards the weeds withered. Latterly, part of the foliage of the woods was very much dried. {217} Travellers were subjected to some inconvenience for want of water to their horses, as were many families who lived in dry situations. Scarcity of water is a calamity that is much aggravated by a hot climate. In taverns, a bucket filled with this indispensable liquid, stands open to every person who chooses to take up the ladle that floats in it, and drink. In schools, churches, and courts of justice, water is provided.
