--------------------------------------------------- 1855. |JANUARY |FEBRUARY.| MARCH.| APRIL. --------------------------------------------------- Key West | 67.18 | 65.94 | 70.28 | 75.09 Mean | 66.58 | 68.88 | 72.88 | 75.38 Fort Snelling | 17.09 | 12.62 | 25.30 | 49.86 Mean | 13.76 | 17.57 | 31.41 | 46.34 Fort Kearney | 23.55 | 25.69 | 32.86 | 54.39 Mean | 21.14 | 26.11 | 34.50 | 47.13 Fort Laramie | 35.85 | 29.01 | 36.41 | 52.94 Mean | 31.03 | 32.60 | 36.81 | 47.60 Fort Arbuckle | 41.94 | 39.86 | 49.09 | 67.43 Mean | 39.10 | 43.69 | 53.22 | 61.85 Fort Belknap | 45.92 | 44.49 | 53.09 | 70.00 Mean | 42.80 | 47.47 | 56.90 | 65.79 Fort Chadbourne | 48.89 | 45.87 | 56.68 | 68.51 Mean | 44.29 | 46.75 | 58.01 | 65.52 Fort McKavitt | 46.74 | 44.51 | 53.66 | 67.05 Mean | 44.75 | 46.87 | 57.39 | 66.25 Fort Merrill | 54.51 | 54.65 | 61.82 | 74.50 Mean | 54.82 | 57.20 | 68.66 | 73.27 Fort Brown | 60.23 | 61.60 | 66.24 | 74.98 Mean | 60.41 | 63.63 | 68.95 | 75.05 Fort Inge | 52.21 | 50.63 | 61.22 | 74.48 Mean | 49.46 | 55.39 | 62.63 | 68.02 --------------------------------------------------- The return transit to the south for this winter, 1855-6, has been an extreme one. It is too early yet (Feb. 18th) to write its history, but the extreme southern transit is as obvious as the unusual severity of the cold. The rains which usually fall upon the Southern States are precipitated further south upon the West Indies, and threaten a deterioration of their sugar crop. The snow, and cold winds, and ice, of the middle latitudes, are felt even in Florida. Our sheet of counter-trade has been exceedingly thin, and the barometer has ranged, in fair weather, much below the mean. Occasional, and for a part of the time, _weekly_ periods of an increase of its volume, with a corresponding elevation of the barometer, and a consequent moderation of the intense cold, and a storm, have occurred. But those periods have been few and brief. No regular thaw has yet occurred. From the 26th of December to this date, at Norwalk, there have been but two periods when the wind has blown from the south-west with sufficient force to stir the limbs of the trees. There has been no wind from south of that point, or east of north-east; and even our storm-winds, with one exception, have been north of north-east--owing to the situation of the focus of precipitation far to the south of us--and there is reason to fear that a cold summer like those of 1816 and 1836 may follow. If this extreme transit is owing to defect in the influence of the sun, from spots, or other causes, such will probably be the result. If from volcanic action at the south, the influence of that