The winter isotherm of 32, commencing at the sea coast near New York, flanks the Alleghanies through several degrees of latitude, southerly, thence curves upwards towards the lakes as far north as Columbus, Ohio, and thence again bends southerly, until it strikes the Missouri, west of, and about the lati- tude of St Louis, a range of less than 3.

Both these isotherms are too dis- tant to be as much affected by the lakes as those first noticed.

These few observations perhaps sufficiently illustrate, though they by no means show all the divergences and irregularities to which many of the iso- thermals of this latitude are subject.

Our locality, though so greatly modified in several aspects of its climate by the presence of the great lakes, falls within the general system which prevails throughout the temperate zone on this continent.

It will be remembered that the lakes do not occupy valleys, as many suppose, nor do they fill gorges among mountains.