Texas: the rise, progress, and prospects of the Republic of Texas, Vol.1 Page: 125 of 432

                                
CHAP. III.]

CLIMATE.

71

and suddenly again as chill as extreme winter.
Notwithstanding the severity of the " northlers," the
winters are generally as moderate as the month of November
in the northern states of the American Union.
Ice is seldom seen, except in the districts towards
the north, and snow is a rare and transient visitor.
Warmer clothing and less airy aipartments than
those of summer are certainly required, but the trees
preserve their foliage and the plains their verdure.
Estimated by its effects on a bountiful soil, the climate
of Texas may fairly claim to be entitled a perpetual
summer, admitting, as it does of two or three
crops a year of fruits and vegetables, in great abundance
and perfection. Two gardens are commonone
for spring and summer, and one for autumn and
winter; and peaches, figs, and other tropical fruits
are plentiful even to the middle of October. These
remarks apply to all Texas Proper, but not to the
district bordering on the territory of New Mexico,
where the winters begin to be of northern severity.
New Mexico itself, although under the same latitude
as Syria and the Morea, has a rigorous winter, and
frost is not unfrequent, even in the middle of May.
Near Santa Fe, and a little farther south, under the
parallel of the Morea, the Rio Grande is sometimes
covered, for a succession of years, with ice thick
enough to admit the passage of horses and carriages.
Pike mentions that he found snow a foot deep on the
eastern bank of the Rio Grande, near Albuquerque,
in latitude 35" 30', as late as the 6th of March.
The " northers," which are peculiar to Texas, and
the eastern coast of Mexico, generally follow a few
days of rain and southerly winds. They burst forth