been but two periods when the wind has blown
from the south-west with sufficient force to stir the limbs of the trees.
There has been no wind from south of that point, or east of north-east;
and even our storm-winds, with one exception, have been north of
north-east--owing to the situation of the focus of precipitation far to
the south of us--and there is reason to fear that a cold summer like those
of 1816 and 1836 may follow. If this extreme transit is owing to defect in
the influence of the sun, from spots, or other causes, such will probably
be the result. If from volcanic action at the south, the influence of that
action may cease, and a rapid return transit, and an ordinary season, may
follow. Believing in the laws of periodicity in relation to the weather
and disease, I planted an early kind of corn (the Dutton), in 1836, and
had a crop when few around me succeeded. We must watch this return
transit, with hope, indeed, but not without fear, and be wise in time.

There is a mass of other evidence in these summaries which shows the truth
of what I have written. There is not a deduction of Mr. Blodget which it
will not explain. The ascent of the summer lines of temperature to the
west is explained by the diminution of magnetic intensity. Their descent
in winter by the location and attractions of the concentrated trade. The
excess of precipitation in Alabama and Mississippi by the succession of
summer and winter belts. That of the interior of the Atlantic slope in
summer, by the showers which fall upon the elevations; and of the coast,
by the easterly storms and their attraction of the surface atmosphere of
the ocean, at other seasons. But I cannot further particularize. Even the
influence of the spots is clearly demonstrated by the observations at
_interior stations_, which were unaffected by contiguous oceans or
elevations. At Forts Washita, Gibson, Scott, Smith, and others, the years
1847 and 1848 were below the mean. All that evidence, and those
deductions, however, I must pass by for want of space, and take leave of
the subject.

Footnotes:

[1] See the diagram for summer at page 55.

[2] Law of Storms, p. 42.

[3] Kearakakua Bay (called Cavrico above), is on the S. W. side of the
island, and the trade was reversed during the day by the cloud
condensation inland.

[4] Lieutenant Wilkes spent twenty days upon the top of this or an
adjoining mountain, and his observations there will be alluded to in