Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 9).djvu/188

 *vation, embracing an extensive range of climate, and a great diversity of vegetable products; but the natives of the temperate climes {157} of Europe will, for the most part, be averse to live under the scorching sun of Georgia, or the intense frosts of the province of Maine. Somewhere between the extremes, probably between Hudson River and Chesapeake Bay, affords the best approximation. At Philadelphia, for example, the mean temperature of the year may be stated at 53.66°, that quantity being a mean of the results obtained by the observations of Dr. Rush, Dr. Cox,[86] and Mr. Legoux;—a determination nearly coinciding with that of Mr. Playfair,[87] (53.58°) for the mean temperature of the vegetative season, from the 20th of March to the 20th of October, at Edinburgh, and only 5.86° higher than the mean temperature of the latter place for the whole year. It is true that the extreme variations are much greater at Philadelphia than at Edinburgh, but it will be in vain to search for a situation in the United States, possessing that equability of heat, that characterizes the British islands.

From the tract of country under consideration, Mary-*