4

of snow take place about the middle of the month, the frost gradually increasing till the ground resists the plough, which is ordinarily about the second week in December. The cold then increases rapidly, and the ground is covered with snow. During the months of January and February the weather is usually steady with the thermometer on rare occasions falling to 15 degrees below zero of Fahrenheit. March, as in England, is a windy month, and is throughout very changeable. During the latter part of this month the snow rapidly melts, and the ice becomes rotten and dangerous for travel, and wholly disappears about the middle of April. Strong southerly wuds now set in, and the last vestiges of frost speedily vanish. The spring is short, and in the beginning of June the summer bursts forth, and from this time to the end of September, the climate resembles that of the Southern coast of England. The thermometer, in calm weather indicatesa greater degree of heat, but the sea breeze seldom fails to lower the temperature, so that little inconvenience arises from it. AbOut the middle of September the autumn commences. 'J he cold is neither so great in winter, nor the heat so intense in summer as in the western provinces of the Dominion, while the Island is almost entirely free from those logs to which the neighboring provinces are subject. This exemption is accounted for by the fact that the waters which wash the shores of the Island do not come in immediate contact with those of a different temperature, and that Cape Breton and New- foundland, both of which are high and mountainous, lying between it and the Atlantic, arrest the fogs, which would otherwise be driven from the banks to the Island.

The following table is compiled from the Official Meteorological Register at Charlottetown, kept by an officer of the department :—

~ \- ‘ . . 1886" 18:8 1m 1880 1881 1882 1&3 1834 1885 30m“

Highest temperature 8760 83'90 86‘80 8570 8510 8110 81‘80 81'70 7880 Lowest tcmperature..'—l3'80 —l7‘90 —11'30 —1500 -14'20 —16'30 —20‘10 ——16'50 —l5'00

Mean of all highest temperatures ..... 401;} 47'50 48'33 4802 4719 4758 4713 48'40 43'03

Mean of all lowest temperatures..... 36'01 32‘29 3217 3299 31365 31-07 30'93 31-82 26-55

Amt. of rain (inches) 32467 25127. 24'245 29‘110 26'733 30'70 39'07 80‘61 12'648 Amt. of snow (inches) 93'60 170'06 14610 “775- 212'90 123'31 13715 114'70 6474 Total precipitation... 41'71 42’018 38'586 43894 48023 42‘74 53'54 4208 19122

No. of fogs observed. 13 16 19 21 8 15 20 15 2

Number or thunders. 7 9 18 11 9 8 7 4 —

Number of lightnings 8 14 23 14 11 9 13 6 —

Number of gales. . . 21 19 19 16 24 17 23 20 9 LANDS.

For more than half a century what was known as the “ Land Question " was, to use a phrase that has become historical, “ a fruitful source of discontent.” Now, happily, it is possible to write of our beautiful Island with merely a passing reference to this grievance, and to say that it no longer exists. Absentee proprietorship has been abolished, and the Provincial Government having purchased the interests of the landlords, has taken their place, not, however, for the purpose of exacting the annual rent from the tenants, but with the object