The quantity of water which falls in rain and snow, one year with another, amounts to from 24 to 36 inches. But to complete the account of variable qualities in the climate, it will be necessary to add, that our summers and autumns are sometimes marked by a _deficiency_, and sometimes by an _excessive_ quantity of rain. The summer and autumn of 1782 were uncommonly dry. Near two months elapsed without a single shower of rain. There were only two showers in the whole months of September and October. In consequence of this dry weather, there was no second crop of hay. The Indian corn failed of its increase in many places, and was cut down for food for cattle. Trees newly planted, died. The pasture fields not only lost their verdure, but threw up small clouds of dust when agitated by the feet of men, or beasts. Cattle in some instances were driven many miles to be watered, every morning and evening. It was remarked during this dry weather, that the sheep were uncommonly fat, and their flesh well tasted, while all the other domestic animals languished from the want of grass and water. The earth became so inflammable in some places, as to burn above a foot below its surface. A complete consumption of the turf by an accidental fire kindled in the adjoining state of New-Jersey, spread terror and distress through a large tract of country. Springs of water and large creeks were dried up in many parts of the state. Rocks appeared in the river Schuylkill, which had never been observed before, by the oldest persons then alive. On one of them were cut the figures 1701. The atmosphere, during part of this dry weather, was often filled, especially in the mornings, with a thin mist, which, while it deceived with the expectation of rain, served the valuable purpose of abating the heat of the sun. A similar mist was observed in France by Dr. Franklin, in the summer of 1782. The winter which succeeded it was uncommonly cold in France, as well as in Pennsylvania. I am sorry that I am not able to furnish the mean heat of each of the summer months. My notes of the weather enable me to add nothing further upon this subject, than that the summer was "uncommonly cool." The summer of the year 1788 afforded a remarkable instance of _excess_ in the quantity of rain which sometimes falls in Pennsylvania. Thirteen days are marked with rain in July, in the records of the weather kept at Spring-Mill. There fell on the 18th and 19th of August seven inches of rain in the city of Philadelphia. The wheat suffered greatly by the constant rains of July in the eastern and middle parts of the state. So unproductive a harvest in grain, from wet weather, had not been known, it is said, in the course of the last 70 years. The heat of the air, during these summer months was very moderate. Its mean temperature at Spring-Mill was 67,8 in June, 74,7 in July, and only 70,6 in August.