34C> On the Changes ofTenipcratui'e and Soil 



afcribed to Plutarch, it is faid, the Tli.crmodon, a Scythiarl 

 river, froze even in fumnier ; a circumftance which never 

 happens at prefent in regard to the rivers of Siberia, Lap- 

 land, and Greenland. Ovid tellsi vis, that he himfelf paflcd 

 over the Pontus Enxinus on the ice. People, adds he, will 

 fcarcely believe me : 



■ ■■ Sed cum fiiu practnia falfi 



Nulla, ratam tcftis tlebtt habere iidcm. 



Plutarch favs, that the prclTure of this enormous mafs of 

 ice againft the fides of fliips frozen into it, cruflied thcrn to 

 pieces ; and he mentions the inftance of a Roman {l)ip 

 which had experienced that fate in the Danube. Strabo 

 and Virgil fpeak of brafs veflcls burfling by the cxpanfive 

 force of the ice ; and we are afl'ured by Virgil and Ovid, that 

 the people in Thrace and on the Danube cut the wine with 

 axes, and diilributcd it in folid portions. They add, like- 

 wife, that men's hair and beards were often covered with ice. 



Stiriaque impexis indufcnt horrida bartjis. ViKGiL. 



Sffpe fonant moti glacie pendente capiili, 



Et nitet Indutto Candida barba gela. OviD. 



If we compare this defcription with the prefent ftate of 

 France, Germany, Hungary, Romania, Tranfylvania, Wal- 

 lachia, Moldavia, Bulgaria, Lefler Tartary, PodoJia, and the 

 Ukraine, it will be found that the prefent temperature of 

 thefe countries has no refemblance to what it was two 

 thoufand years ago : the effefts produced there every winter 

 fearcelv take place now once in a century, and when they 

 occur they are confidered as extraordinary phenomena. 



From ice I fhall proceed to fnow. Herodotus, Pompo- 

 nius Mela, and Pliny the elder, fpeak of the European part 

 of Scythia as if its atmofphere was continually filled with 

 fnow and fogs, which prevented the view of the neareft ob- 

 jefts, and obfcured the light of the day. We arc told by 

 Herodotus, that this immenfe load of fnow, when it" fell, 

 made the air appear as if filled, with feathers ; and that, fo« 



this 



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