New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1856-01-22

81. Louis, and reaches much iufther nortn on Tue
,,.s, plains I, also strikes Salt Lake City, and
trayerses the Sacramento and SanJoaqu.n rsile,soi
Caftrnia. In Europe this line skirts the northern
shore of the mediterranean only, and IN marry 'Ae
same latitude; so that, in Summer hSe iA"'u"e'
D the trc Continents have qrite the same temper
AZURE. snd the United States IS lying IN lower au
tudes are positively much warmer than Europe
To lis statement there are two EXCEPTIONS now
ever: the Rocky Mounrsin plateau. and the lmne'
date coast Of the Pacific. The hrst Is at an
sl.yston 81 great as 30 reduce the temperature Of
the Northern portion Of New-Mexico 20 that OF the
Erglsh Summer, or 70 mean oil W ana tho
Pacific coast h. cooled BY extraordinary causes TO
summer mean OF % or one scarcely 80 great Is
that OF Spring and Autumn. The great altitude oil
tie interior platesux fully explains Their reduced
tenperature and is only surprising that they are
arabe. when considerable tracts are IS high neSrly
a. The snow lie OF the Alps. The heat Is SO much
greater than that belonging TO like attitudes IN
Europe. that no rule heretofore employed Tor re-
ducing the observed temperatures to their eqaivs-
leuts at sea-level would apply at all; and at Fort
Iarsmie, 4 800 feet above the sea, the mean tenn
peratre Of every season sequa to that Of the same
ATTITUDES On the Atlantic coast.
The i.othermal Of 65o for the Summer which
limit. the growth of our great staple, Indian corn
curves northward at the sources OF the MISSISSIPPI
and along Red River, nearly TO the Saskatchewan
in British America thence il turns along the east
ern base of the Rocky Mountains TO Fort MlSsa-
chusetts, in New.Mexico, to return on the west
of the mountains TO the plains Of Columbia River;
again going south within the coast ranges OF the
Pacific. nearly to San Diego, in California. The
Pacific districts are but partially fitted to its
growth. and the immediate coast not at all
The western border of the Great Plains Is
warmer than the eastern, notwithstanding IT'S
o-,ater altitude They decline northward also,
and are lower by /, 900 to 1900 feet on the Mis-
souri, than on the Platte and Arkansas Rivers, while
the sources of the Missouri approach nearer the
Pacific than do those of the rivers last named,
bringing the sOftening influence OF the Pacific eli
mates TO aid other causes in giving the isothermals
for every season large nOrthward curvatures in
going west from the Mississippi River.
Westward of the Rocky Mountains, we have in-
portant new facts The coast singularly equable
in temperature, and there is, for the year, but
FIVE degrees decrease of temperature from San
Francisco to our Northern boundary, while the
decrease for the same distance on the Atlantic
coast is twenty five degrees for Spring, Autumn
and the year, twenty degrees for Summer and thirty
for the Winter. The Pacific coast rcproduces the
t.mperatires of the West of England, Scotland, and
| Norway, very nearly; and if the sharp mountain
ranges of the Pacific districts did not intervene,
We should doubtless have this climate reaching far
| into the interior, as in the West OF Europe. As 1t
H. cur interior districts in the vicinity of the Rocky
Mountains are very variable, and, though s0ftened
in Winter to some extent they still character
| lied by great extremes. The Summer is hot, but
variable, and the general resemblance is rather to
tho y, Tor of Asia than to any part OF Europe
The Winter in the Uuit I'D States reyerses the
| curvatures of the thermal lines of Summer; the
interior and the East are extremely cold while the
Pacific coast is nearly warm in Summer.
Tie Plains near the Mississippi are the coolest
districts not mountainous and at the mouth of the
| Red River of the North, where the Summer sO-
| thermal Of 65o reaches and Indian corn is cult
waited, the mean temperature of the Winter is at
| zero of Fahrenheit. Puget's Sound, in Washing
| ton Territory, has Winter mean of 400, or as
high as that of the southwest of England, Southern
France, and Italy. New-York City is on the
s,tterma line of 80, which does not touch the
Pacific coast, but passes Great Salt Lake, Santa
Fe, ST. Louis and Cincinnati; crossing the Atlantic
TO Iceland and the coast Of Norway and returning
in Central Europe through Berlin to the lower
Danube and the Crimea.
The contrasts oftemperature between tropical
Florida and the North and interior Of the United
States are very striking at this season. The
changes in successive years are also very great
Through the Central States, from Norfolk to
Fort Smelling, the range from the warTnest to
the coolest year has maximum of ten degrees in
period of twenty-five, or the coolest Of such b
series may be FIVE degrees below the mean, and
the warmest five degrees above if. This range is
not so great as in the Lake country, nor in New
England and the South; it is also less than one
third as great for the six years observed on the
Pacific coast. The range for the warm months and
seasons s less than this and that for the cold months
greater. The range for Winter month is greater
at the South and in the central districts than in the
North and East at Charleston, s. c., the Winter
mean has range of seventeen degrees in period
Of 90 years.
From the records of the older posts Of Obserya-
ton, We may select the years of extreme temper
allure since 1890; and, with our historical knowl-
edge of one cold period from 1872 to 1916, We find
the next conspicuous one at 1884 to 1887; and the
xears Is3l lal2 and 1850 10 be DISTINGUISHED "A