The Tiffin tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1868-1887, 1877-05-17
CLIHATIG CURIOsITIEs.

CLIMATIC CURI0SITIES.
: When Gabriel Fahrenheit con-
stracted his new thermometer, which
has since become q household article
throughout the United States and
Great Britain, he graded his instru-
neut to thirty-5ne degrees below the
J freezing point, which be supposed to
be the ne plus ultra of cold, the zero
Of the earthly atmosphere, which
: only artificial means, Dut no natural
temperature could surpass.
Fahrenheit lived in Amsterdam,
where bis mercury tube never sunk
lower than fifteen degrees below the
temperature of freezing water, but
be was in correspondence with the
Royal Society OF London, and had
been informed that in Northern Scot
land his thermometer had fallen six
further degrees, or twenty-One below
the freezing point. To accommodate
the inhabitants OF Iceland, who had
not been heard from yet, or whalers
on an Arctic cruise. he assumed the
possibility OF 3 temperature ten de-
grees below that of Northern Scot
land, and thus reached his zero, which
is still marked at thirty-one below the
central division.
But only four months ago the open
air temperature of Cincinnati exceed
ed Fahrenhett's nc plus ultra by sew
enteen degrees, and during the last
ten years our thermometers have
twice sunk to-24, or fully forty de-
grees below the minimum of Amster-
dam.
Yet, il we consult map OF the
world we find that our latitude, in
stead of being by hyperborean, is far
south of the NetneriAnds,-so far, in
deed, that the equatorial degree of
Cincinnati carries US almost beyond
Europe, down to the parallel of
Smyrna, in Asia Minor, or Cosenza,
in southermost Italy. In other words
though we live about two hundred
miles south of Rome, our winter cli-
mate corresponds to that of Ham mer-
fest, in Norway, more than tIOO thou
sand miles north of Rome. Between
other parts of Europe and America
that correspond exactly in latitude,
the climatic contrast is even more as
tonishing. The city of Genoa, i'll
Italy, for instance, is situated just on
the fOrty-sixth degree of northern
| latitude, which passes through Ameri-
ca q little below Ddluth, Minnesota,
on SauIt Ste. Marie, Michigan. But
the winter climate of Genoa makes
that place the favorite resort of con-
sumptives from all parts of the world,
aud resembles rather languid spring
than what we use to call cold weather,
while the winters of Northern Michi-
/
of a language that has been formed
| in Europe can express.
! Last year 1 met a Norwegian en-
gineer, who had been employed for
year or two on the ship canal OF Sault
Ste. Marie, and left there, though he
had been literally paid because the
climatic hardships of that latitude be-
gan to undermine his constitution. 81
have been in Stockholm" he said,
"and in Reykjsvik, in Western Ice
land, but anything they call cold up
there is just comfort itself compared
to the horrors of Lake Superior. The
thermometer was repeatedly down to
fOrty-eiqht 6elOJU zero. while q storm
was sweeping the lake that would
have moved an ice yacht at the rate
of . hundred miles an hour. While
you are sleeping behind heavy walls
and double windows, with q wood fire
blazing ten feet from your bed, ice
forms on your eyelashes and around
your nostrils, and out on the lake
reaches q thickness of eight feet and
half. I have heard beams and rafters
break from their joints In nighttime
with the sound Of cannon shot, be-
cause the cold contracted them beyond
the power OF their resistance /; and
dogs that had been left in the open
yard by mistake began to howl as if
they were being fisyed alive. If you
open your house-door on q cold morn
ing the frat sensation takes your
breath away ; and on the lake shore,
with two or three shawls around your
head and through four fold cover of
coats, you feel that the wind is eating
into your lungs like corrosive subli-
mate. But tue clear, calm nights are
the worst, and II you omit to pile q
hay stack about your stable door be-
fore dark you find your horses dead
the next morning.
The parallel of Amsterdam and
London carries us beyond any toler-
able human .habitation on this side
the Atlantic; far into the frozen
sWamps of Labrador and the almost
eternal ice of Lake Winnipeg. To
reach q corresponding climate we
have to go at least eighteen hundred
miles further north in the old world,
and before GUs can escape from the
hardships OF winter like the natives
of Genoa we have to pass the Rio
GranGe and seek refuge in northern
Mexico, for Brownsville, Texas, the
ultima thule of our southern frontier
is still in danger OF occasional snow
storms, and can even enjoy the luxury
of frozen ears and toes, things un-
known anywhere in Italy, except on
the icefields of the topmost Apen-
mines.
Meteorologists tell US that the aver
age temperature of our whole year il
not so very different from that of Ed
ropean places under the same latitude, |
which is to say that the roasting we |
get in July might idemnify us for |
chiIblains and tubercles contracted in |
December. But this system of COM
pensation can not compete with the |
advantages of Europe. Her summers |
are cooler than ours, while her winters
are warmer. The difference between |
the coolest and warmest day express
es the chief contrast OF the two cli-
mates. l.a. -a
Montreal is the name OF a small |
town on the Bay Of Biscay, where the !
utmost heat Of summer never exceeds
S5o, while during December and jan
uary the temperature may sink to 40',
q difference OF 45' between the ex-
tremes. But the splendid name-sake
of Montreal which the French have
founded or an island of the st. Law
renee, can boast OF yearly contrast
of 1852, from 10i' above zero TO 5l0
below. -..
What then is the cause of this
strange difference ? Is really the Gulf
Stream abtuctlng our caloric, to
waste it Oh Connaugbt and the Farce
Islands ? Or is Laplace's theory the
true one-that Europe has been bless
ed, at the expense OF Nsrthern Africa,
which the destruction of timber has
converted into furnace that gently
warns the chilled feet of the neigh
boring continent ?
So much is certain, that the climate
OF Europe has undergone q great
change. In the days OF Virgil and
the elder Piiny the Tlber was covered
with a firm sheet OF ice every year, 1
and the depth OF snow 10 Tuscany
often reached q foot and half, while
now hardly any ice is formed south
of the Alps, and snow commonly
melts an hour after it reaches the
ground. The first Roman cOlOnists OF
the Rhine tried in vain to cultivate
the grapes of their native country
they could never survive that hyper
borean winter, and even the hardy
variety OF Dalmatis refused to put
forth flowers in a land that now pro-
dCces the vintage Of HOcbheim and
Johannisberg. The European Cau-
casus which now enjoys q climate re-
that of our North Carolina,
was once afflicted with such noun
famous loads of snow that a Lstin
poet Imagined the touch OF hot iron
might be tempered by q mere thought
of "frozen Caucasus" The Danube
ia the days OF Tacitus was in icy fet-
tiers for seven months in the year
from RatisbOn 20 Vienna, where ice Is
seen rarely now after the middle OF
March,