shaded from the sun and rain, but is exposed to the currents of wind; so is also the icy surface in winter.

I am led to believe this amount is tolerably correct. The mean amount of evaporation from the surface of water alone for the 7 months is nearly 21 inches, the remaining amount being furnished by the evaporation which takes place from the surface of ice during the remaining 5 months.

Winds. The most prevailing wind of the year is the westerly, and the mean direction for the 7 years in the different months is as fol

The greatest velocity on record here exceeds somewhat 60 miles per hour linear. There seems a disposition for a change both in the direction and velocity at 3 P. M. and at 3 A. M., which corresponds precisely with the diurnal barometric fluctuations. The whole amount of miles linear of wind during the past year (1856) was 53,061.63 miles, which being resolved into the four cardinal points, gave N. 6,969.80 miles; S. 5,298.89 miles; E. 10,776.40 miles; and W. 30,016.56 miles. The maximum velocity during the past year was 44.40 miles per hour. There were 2,220 hours 15 minutes calm, and 6,546 hours during which the atmosphere was in motion. Below is a table of the anemometric observation during the year 1856, showing the direction and amount of miles from each quarter of the compass, and also the amount of miles run in each month; also the amount of calm in hours for each month.

The yearly mean intensity of the sun's rays for the same septennial period, is 102° 6', and for the months as follows:

The yearly (septennial) mean of terrestrial radiation was 11° 6', and for the months as follows:

The amount of dew is very variable, but bears a proportion to the degree of terrestrial radiation.

The mean of cloudless days were 57 days perfectly cloudless; the prevailing clouds are the cumuli stratus and cirri stratus.

The song sparrow (fringilla melodia), the harbinger of the Canadian spring, generally makes its first appearance the first week of April. Frogs (rana) are first heard about the 23d of April. Shad (alosa) are caught the last week in May. Fire-flies (lampyrus corusca) are first seen about the 24th of June; and the snow bird (plectrophanes nivalis) generally makes its first appearance about the 20th of November. Swallows (hirudo rufa) about the 18th of April. Our winter generally sets in about the latter week of November, or the first week in December, and is ushered in by a fall of snow from the N. E. by E., and this is the point from which our winter storms come. Rain generally comes accompanied with a wind from the S. S. W., or S. E., and also from the N. E. by E.

We have generally a few days of that poetic season, the Indian summer, in November.

"The year's last, loveliest smile,

That comes to fill with hope the human heart;
And strengthen it to bear the storms awhile,
Till winter's days depart."

Our snow storms of winter are from the N. E. by E.; and for some hours before they form, the eastern horizon becomes gradually covered with heavy strata clouds of a deep leaden hue. The upper strata of clouds are generally a mixture of cirri cumulus and stratus, moving from the south; but the surface wind is from the point I have stated, N. E. by E. The wind during these storms often attains a velocity of some 30 or 40 miles per hour; the barometer is falling, and the thermometer somewhere about zero, the psychometer indicates an increasing amount of moisture, the electrometers indicate a very high tension of negative electricity, often an amount of 300° in terms of Volta's No. 1 electrometer, and sparks are constantly passing between the receiver and discharger for hours.

Minute but perfect crystalline forms of snow commence to fall, and may continue for some 48 hours; and I have seen some 12 or more inches of snow fall during this time. Precipitation then ceases; the

zero.

wind veers always by the N. to the W., or W. N. W., with a velocity of some 30 miles per hour, (this is our cold term); and the wind carries the loose, finely crystallized snow in clouds before it; this is, in Canadian parlance, a "poudrerie." The wind is intensely cold; the thermometer, during this period, attains a minimum of some 30° below The sky is partly covered by cumuli clouds, with a few strati ; the electrometers still indicate a high tension, but of an opposite or positive character. This westerly wind may last some 48 hours or more, and lulls down at sunset; may be, of the second day, into a calm. The blue tint of the sky is very deep, and the rays of the setting sun throw a red or orange shade on the snowy scene, and the atmosphere attains a greater dryness, and the electrical action gradually ceases with the wind.

Our thunderstorms of summer, which give a yearly mean of 14 (for the same period of 7 years) are of short duration, forming generally in the W. or N. W., and the electricity varies in kind.

The months of April, May, and June bring returning summer; the nights of July and part of August are generally oppressive; the temperature often remains at 70° during the night; but the Canadian autumn is very pleasant. The woods, with its leaves of a thousand varied tints, and the blue and cloudless sky, with frosty nights, remind us that the good times of the merry sleigh-bells are near.

Notwithstanding these vicissitudes and extremes of temperature, the soil is very productive, and vegetation prolific and rapid; and it has again pleased an all-wise Providence, during the present year, to crown the labors of the Canadian husbandman with a bountiful and abundant harvest.

PART II.

B. NATURAL HISTORY.

I. GEOLOGY AND GEOGRAPHY.

1. EXPLANATIONS OF THE GEOLOGICAL MAP OF MISSOURI, AND A SECTION OF ITS ROCKS. By PROFESSOR G. C. SWALLOW, State Geologist of Missouri.

In calling your attention to the map and section of the rocks of Missouri, it has been deemed advisable to give a brief description of the formations, and the useful minerals, which they contain.

So far as observed, the stratified rocks of Missouri belong to the following divisions:

The rocks of these divisions will be examined in their order, from the top, down.

As the formations of this system have been described in another paper, I shall simply give their names here, in their order, as follows: :