ivJnch tahe place in different Climates. . 34I 



this reafon, the eouiitrv was called Pterophoros. Diodorus 

 Siculiis fpeaks of Celto-Scythia as covered with fnow in the 

 winter time; and the fame thing is aflerted by Floras and 

 Petronius. Virgil, fpeaking of Thrace and the countries oi* 

 both fides of the Danube, fays, that a continual winter pre- 

 vailed in them ; and that the fnow lay upon the ground 

 fometimes to the depth of feven ells. 



Sic jacct aggeribus iiivcis informis, et a!to 

 Terra gelu late, feptemquo affurgit in ulnas, 

 Semper hyems, fcmper fpirantes frigora cauri. 



The piclure which Ovid gives of the fnow at Tomi (in 

 the lat. of 44') is no lefs horrid, as he tells us that it con- 

 tinued two years without being melted by the fu;i or rain : 



ISiix jjcet et jaftam ncc fol pluvicEve rel'olvunt j 

 Ec folet ill multis bima mancre locis. 



In regard to other meteorological phenomena in the Eu- 

 ropean part of Scythia and Celto-Scythia in the time of 

 Herodotus and the following century, this hiftorian fays, 

 that it fcldom rained in the winter, becaufe at that period it 

 fcldom ceafed to fnow ; and that, on the other hand, when 

 the weather in funmier was dry and fair in Greece and Lefler 

 Afia, it never ceafed to rain in the country of the Cclto-Scy- 

 thians: that during this feafon the heavens were always over- 

 caft with clouds, and that thunder, even in fummer, vi-as very 

 uncommon ; that when it happened in winter, it was con- 

 fidcrcd ag a wonder, and that, in thqfc feafons when it took 

 place, earthquakes were obferyed a!fo. This laft cjrcum- 

 ftancc is indeed worthy of attention, as it ferves to confirm 

 my conjcfturcs refpeciling the theory of the earth. 



Diodorus Siculus, Tacitus, and Ovid, when they fpeak of 

 Gaul, Germany, and Thrace, take notice of the prodigious 

 force of the wind which prevailed in tliefe^^countrics in their 

 time and during the preceding centuries. Thefe winds raifcd 

 fven ftoucs and men from the earth ; carried away the roofs 

 of houl'csj tore up trees by the roots, and overturned turrets 

 Z'3 aqd 



