In a region so extensive as the United States, there must necessarily be a great variety of _climate_. In general, the heat of summer and the cold of winter are more intense, and the transitions, from the one to the other, are more sudden than in the old continent. The predominant winds are from the west; and the severest cold is felt from the north-west. Between the forty-second and forty-fifth degrees of latitude, the same parallel as the south of France, the winters are very severe. During winter, the ice of the rivers is sufficiently strong to bear the passage of horses and waggons; and snow is so abundant, as to admit the use of sledges. In Georgia the winters are mild. South Carolina is subject to immoderate heat, to tremendous hurricanes, and to terrific storms of thunder and lightning. The United States are usually classed in three divisions: the northern, the middle, and the southern. The _northern states_ have the general appellation of _New England_: they are Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. The _middle states_ are New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana. The _southern states_ are Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tenessee, and Louisiana. Besides these, the United States claim the government of the _territories_ of the Illinois, Alabama, and Mississippi. By a public ordinance, passed in the year 1787, a territory cannot be admitted into the American Union, until its population amounts to 60,000 free inhabitants. In the mean time, however, it is subject to a regular provisional form of government. The administration of this is entrusted to a governor, who is appointed by the president and congress of the United States; and who is invested with extensive powers, for protection of the interests of the States, and the observance of a strict faith towards the Indians, in the exchange of commodities, and the purchase of lands.