The natural commencement of the winter season, according to Mr.
Howard’s “Tables,” is on the 7th of December. This quarter of the year
comprehend eighty-nine days, except in leap-year when it has ninety
days. Winter exhibits as large a proportion of the cold, as summer did
of the heat. In spring the cold gradually goes off, to be replaced in
the middle of the season by warmth; the respective proportions being
like those which obtain in autumn, while their positions are reversed.
“The mean temperature of the season in the country is 37.76 degrees. The
medium temperature of the twenty-four hours, descends from about 40 to
34½ degrees, and returns again to the former point.
“The mean height of the _barometer_ is 29.802 inches, being .021 inches
above that of autumn. The range of the column is greatest in this
season; and in the course of twenty winters it visits nearly the two
extremities of the scale of three inches. The mean winter range is
however 2.25 inches.
“The predominating _winds_ at the beginning of winter are the
south-west: in the middle these give place to northerly winds, after
which the southerly winds prevail again to the close: they are at this
season often boisterous at night.
“The mean _evaporation_, taken in situations which give more than the
natural quantity from the surface of the earth, (being 30.467 inches on
the year,) is 3.587 inches. This is a third _less_ than the proportion
indicated by the mean temperature; showing the _dampness_ of the air at
this season.
“De Luc’s hygrometer averages about 78 degrees.
“The average _rain_ is 5.868 inches. The rain is greatest at the
commencement, and it diminishes in rapid proportion to the end. In this
there appears a salutary provision of divine intelligence: for had it
increased, or even continued as heavy as in the autumnal months, the
water instead of answering the purpose of irrigation, for which it is
evidently designed, would have descended from the saturated surface of
the higher ground in perpetual floods, and wasted for the season the
plains and valleys.
“Notwithstanding the sensible indications of moisture, which in the
intervals of our short frosts attend this season, the actual quantity of
vapour in the atmosphere is now, probably, at its lowest proportion, or
rather it is so at the commencement of the season; after which it
gradually increases with the temperature and evaporation.”[408]
_Winter._
This is the eldest of the seasons: he
Moves not like spring with gradual step, nor grows
From bud to beauty, but with all his snows
Comes down at once in hoar antiquity.
No rains nor loud proclaiming tempests flee
Before him, nor unto his time belong
The suns of summer, nor the charms of song,
That with May’s gentle smiles so well agree.
But he, made perfect in his birth-day cloud,
Starts into sudden life with scarce a sound,
And with a tender footstep prints the ground,
As tho’ to cheat man’s ear: yet while he stays
He seems as ’twere to prompt our merriest days,
And bid the dance and joke be long and loud.
_Literary P. Book._
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