220 Dr Forry on the Climate of the United States. 



1688, was so firmly frozen, that Charles XI. of Sweden 

 crossed it with his army ; or the similar fact that in the win- 

 ter of 1779-80, horse and ai'tillery were transported over the 

 ice in the harbour of New York. We have elsewhere clearly 

 established, from historical evidence, but which is here pre- 

 cluded from want of space, that the most remarkable ex- 

 tremes of heat and cold have been frequently recurring ever 

 since the time of the Romans referred to above, notwith- 

 standing the opinion of Gibbon to the contrary. 



Although in possession of the facts requisite to establish 

 the opinion that the climate of Europe has undergone no 

 material change since the ei'a of Julius Csesar, yet it was 

 not without considerable hesitancy that we announced this 

 conclusion. What, then, was our surprise, in finding sub- 

 sequently a remarkable coincident confirmation of this de- 

 duction in the last work of that extraordinary man, Noah 

 Webster, LL.D., entitled " A Collection of Papers on Poli- 

 tical, Literary, and Moral Subjects," published in 1843. One 

 of the papers is " On the supposed Change in the Tempe- 

 rature of Winter^'' which, containing foi-ty-four octavo pages, 

 consists of two distinct essays read before the Connecticut 

 Academy of Arts and Sciences, — the first in 1799, and the 

 supplementary remarks in 1806.* 



In this investigation, Dr Webster commences with the 

 dawn of history. From several passages in the Scriptures, 

 of equivocal import, written as early as the days of Moses 

 and David, it has been hastily concluded, that the climate of 

 Palestine or Judea has undergone a most remarkable melio- 

 ration. But the fallacy of this inference he establishes most 

 conclusively, proving that the climate of Palestine has expe- 

 rienced no increase of temperature for more than 3000 

 years. In every part of the Bible mention is made of olives, 

 figs, and pomegranates ; and even in the time of Moses, the 

 spies sent to explore the country came back laden with 

 figs and pomegranates. Accoi'ding to Pliny, " Judea is par- 

 ticularly renowned for palm-trees or dates ;" and that these 



* These Essays were published in New Harem, A.D., 1810, consti- 

 tuting the first article in the " Memoirs of the Connecticut Academy of 

 Arts and Sciences," vol. i., part 1, p. 216, 8vo. — Eds, 



