u can, but
any time towards the middle of the day it is very disagreeable to do
so. Calcutta is in latitude 22 deg., New York 40 deg. This accounts for
the less powerful sun in the latter place; but why the nights there are
so cruelly hot, I know not. The sea, as is well known, lessens
extremes of temperature, but it does not seem to have that effect in
New York, though it is virtually on the sea, for the winters there
are as cold as the summers are hot. Twice in the year is the climate
exquisite, viz. spring and autumn, but both summer and winter are
intensely disagreeable. We have no idea here in England of extremes
of temperature, for we never experience them. Were we visited with
the heat and cold of New York, 100 deg. Fahr. in summer, 20 deg. to 25
deg. below zero in winter, as maximums and minimums, we should feel
new sensations, and be thankful for the temperate climate we have,
instead of abusing it as so many of us do.

I cannot, I doubt if many can, sympathize with the sailor who,
returning from a Pacific station, and entering the Channel one
typical English day, thick with fog and sleet, buttoned his overcoat
around him, and looking up aloft, exclaimed, "Ah! this is the sort of
thing. None of your d--d blue skies here." If the story is not true,
it is well invented. Poor Jack was sick of blue skies and hot suns,
but why he should have selected for commendation perhaps the main
point in which the English climate is deficient, makes it very
humorous. As I said, I cannot go as far as he did, and while I admit
the English climate is far from perfect, that it is a climate of
changes, the only rule being that no day shall be like its
predecessor or its successor, that the winter is dark and dismal,
that rain and slush, fog and mist, easterly winds and such like are
the rule, and bright, balmy days the exceptions, still, in the
immunity we possess from extremes of temperature, I think we have a
blessing that balances all these drawbacks. Who, except those who
have so suffered, can realize the lassitude, the intense discomfort
of great heat, the acute physical suffering produced by extreme cold.
I have been in many climes, but I know of one only I would, if I
could, substitute for the English climate. I found that one in
America, at San Francisco, on the Pacific coast, but of this farther
on.

The entrance to New York is very beautiful, and a great contrast to
the dingy approach to London by the Thames. On a brigh