The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1869-12-25

1t will be observed, in looking over this
table, that, while from the 2lst of December to
the 7th of January we gain fifteen minutes in
the afternoon, we lose four minutes in the
morning, so that the actual lengthening OF the
day is only eleven minutes. Again, on
December ~, the sun went down to us of this
city at 4:32, giving us the shortest afternoon
in the year; but on the same day the sun rose
at 7:l5, or six minutes earlier than on the
2lst. How is it that from noon, supposed to
be the exact middle of the day, we have first
for several weeks, as the shortest day Is
coming on, the forenoon longer than the
afternoon, and then, from the shortest day,
the afternoon longer than the forenoonp
While rolling its annual circuit round the
sun of six hundred millions of miles the earth
has not its axis or its poles placed at right
angles with the line it pursues, but in an
oblique or slanting direction first, beginning
with the year, careening so as to present the
northern hemisphere more directly to the sun,
for half the year, and then careening back so
as to give the other half of the year to the
southern hemisphere. Thus, when it is mid
winter in New York it is midsummer in the
same degree of latitude south Of the equator,
and rice yers0;: and as for the month or so Of
irregularities between the forenoons and
afternoons, at the turning point of the earth
from north to south, or from south to north,
in its daily revolutions at these times, we
may compare the earth to q ship in lacking
r OH in
tack before the ship gets under full sail again;
and so it is with the earth in reco -ering The
equilibrium on her axletree. By the 9th Of
January having made the turn, or rather the
lift, which is to bring her northern hemisphere
back again to the sun, she will II all right
again, and our days will 60 on lengthening,
morning and evening the same, till the sum-
mer is again upon us.
But how is it that as
the days begin to lengthen,
The cold begins to strengthen
For the simple reason that excepting in the
event of an early and general cold snap) the
heat absorbed by the earth through the summer
does not with us here wholly pass off till about
Christmas or New Year. Then, however, the
being all gone, ''as the days begin to lengthen,"
we find that the ''cold begins to strengthen"
Jack Frost, having at length thoroughly
chilled the ground, and having covered all the
great mountain ranges and most Of the land
with snow again, and frozen over the lakes
and rivers above the immediate influence Of
the sea- the air is also chilled and winter
reigns once more. A broadly extended ''cold
snap" followed by a deep snow, over wide
range early in the season, almost invariably
brings us hard winter, with long succession
of heavy frosts and SHOWS. On the other
hand, if we have no heavy snow that sticks till
about the middle of January, the chances ara
that the winter will pass away without much
sleighing or skating; for then the sun, with
the reduced area of snowfieds to operate
against him, is apt to gain the mastery over
Old Boreas. As the winds from snow covered
range of mountains are always cold, so are
they in proportion chilled in passing over q
snow covered continent, talk as you may OF
the latent heat of snow. Hence the terrible
freeze which comes to us with regular
nor'wester over an unbroken field of snow
from the Rocky Mountains. Hence, too, look
ing to the interests of this crowded metropolis,
where deep snow is dreadful nuisance and
a hard winter serious misfortune, we shall
not complain, our late snow having dsap-
peared, if the general hope of a comparatively
soft and pleasant winter is realized.