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URING the course of the summer of 1892 the papers frequently described in sufficiently striking paragraphs the abnormally high temperature which was experienced in many parts of the globe. The first tidings of this nature reached us from America. Thus we read that on the 29th of July the thermometer in the streets of New York had risen to as much as 101° and 102° in the shade. At the meteorological station in that city, where, no doubt, every precaution was adopted to insure accuracy in the record, we find that a temperature of 99° was indicated. The next day July 30 the ascent of the mercury still continued, and we hear that an observation in the Fifth Avenue showed as much as 107° in the shade. This, however, seems to have been the culmination of what had been somewhat absurdly designated "the great heat-wave." On July 31 the warmth had begun perceptibly to decline, though it was still terribly oppressive.

The descriptions received from various parts of the North American continent show that the heat was almost,