[From _The Discovery, Settlement, and Present State of Kentucky_
(Wilmington, Delaware, 1784)]
This country is more temperate and healthy than the other settled parts
of America. In summer it has not the sandy heats which Virginia and
Carolina experience, and receives a fine air from its rivers. In winter,
which at most lasts three months, commonly two, and is but seldom
severe, the people are safe in bad houses; and the beasts have a goodly
supply without fodder. The winter begins about Christmas, and ends about
the first of March, at farthest does not exceed the middle of that
month. Snow seldom falls deep or lies long. The west winds often bring
storms and the east winds clear the sky; but there is no steady rule of
weather in that respect, as in the northern states. The west winds are
sometimes cold and nitrous. The Ohio running in that direction, and
there being mountains on that quarter, the westerly winds, by sweeping
along their tops, in the cold regions of the air, and over a long tract
of frozen water, collect cold in their course, and convey it over the
Kentucky country; but the weather is not so intensely severe as these
winds bring with them in Pennsylvania. The air and seasons depend very
much on the winds as to heat and cold, dryness and moisture.