THE RETROSPECT OF THE YEAR. 133 
boiirtl, cofisting, sknting, tnippino;, ounning, fishing, sing- 
ing schools iind girls' stimplers. He also spoke of the 
old modes of travel, snow shoes, etc. Nearly all the heavy 
teaming was done on sleds, and he mentioned the winter 
of 1768-9, when the travelling was so bad that the farmers 
in the western part of the state could not get their grain 
and provisions to the coast to market. Snow remained 
on the roads as it fell until about a century ago. Mr. 
Perley then spoke of particular winters : that of 1641-2, 
when the Indians said they had not seen the ocean so much 
frozen for forty years: of 1646-7, when there was no 
snow to lay; of 1696-7, said to be the coldest winter 
since the first settlement of New England ; of 1701-2, 
which was "turned into summer;" of 1717-18, when the 
snow was from ten to fifteen feet deep and the drifts twenty- 
five feet, many one-story houses being buried ; of 1740-1, 
said to be the severest winter known by the settlers, Salem 
harbor being frozen over as early as October ; of 1774-5, 
a wonderfully mild winter; of 1779-80, when for forty 
days, including March, there was no perceptible thaw, and 
the snow was so hard and deep that loaded teams passed 
over the fences in any direction, arches being dug under 
the snow so that men on horseback could ride under them, 
and which was long remembered as the hard winter ; of 
1784-5, when, as late as April 15, snow was two feet 
deep, and frozen hard enough to bear cattle ; of 1785-6, 
when in the remarkable storm of Nov. 25, the snow blew 
into balls, one of which had rolled seventy-six feet, meas- 
uring 17J by 22 inches ; of 1794-5, when the Betsey was 
launched in Salem on Christmas Day, the thermometer 
indicating 80 degrees above zero at noon and men and boys 
went in swimming ; of 1801-2, when the Ulysses^ Brutus 
and Volutia, three Salem vessels, which sailed out of the 
harbor on a summer-like morning in February, were all 
