kvhlch tah place in different Climates. 539 



prefent fuit thofe countries which lie between e^6 degrees of 

 latitude and the polar circle; and in feme refpetis they 

 feem to exceed the cold of the winter in Sweden and Nor- 

 way. In order to fee realifed at prefent the defcriptiorts 

 Vi-hich the ancients have giveil of the climate of the middle 

 part of Europe in their time, it would be neceflary to vifit 

 Lapland, Siberia, and thofe regioris of America lying to the 

 north of Hudfon's Bay, where the ftate of the climate is the 

 fame as that 2000 years ago on the banks of the Rhine aild 

 the Danube, the Palus Meotis, the Dnieper, and the Don. 



The fir(t effeft, uniformly mentioned by the ancients, of 

 the extraordinary cold of the winter in that whole part of 

 Europe between the 44lh and ^goth degree of latitude is, 

 that all the feas, lakes and rivers contained in thofe dif- 

 trids were continually frozen in winter, fo that armies of 

 barbarians, Scythians and Sarmatlans, in order that the/ 

 might plunder the more fouthern countries, paflcd with their 

 horfes, waggons and baggage over the ice, which they be* 

 ftrewed with ftraw to prevent their (liding. This is ex- 

 prefsly aflerted by Herodotus, Virgil, Ovid, and Strabb, of 

 the European part of Scythisi, Dacia, atid Thrace, all caun^ 

 tries which lay in a northern and weltern direftion from th« 

 Palus Mentis and the Euxine Sea. The fame thing is af- 

 ferted by Diodorus Siculus, Seneca, Pliny the younger, 

 Florus, Herodian, Ammianus Marcellinus, Fernandes the 

 Goth, and Xiphilinus the abfidger of Dio Caffius, in regard 

 to the rivers and lakes of Pannonia, Germany, and Gaul. 

 They mark the times when thcfe armies palled the ice, and 

 the wars whifch they then carried on ; fd that no doubt can 

 be entertained in regard to teftimoriy fo unanimous and au- 

 thentic. Herodotus lays, that the Sfcythians in this manner 

 over-ran, during winter, all the neighbouring countries as 

 far as India •„ and we are told byStrabo, tbdl Ncoptolemus, 

 the genera! of Miihridate?, beat the barbarians in winter 

 with an army of cavali'y, at a place which in funimer hud 

 been th« fcene of a naval battle. lu Ui«^ Trcatlfc on Rivers, 

 Z 7, al'cribed 



