CLIMATE, SEASONS, ETC. 

 1817. 



Dec. 9. Thaw. No rain. We get on with our work again. 



10. Open mild weather. 



11. Same weather. Very pleasant. 



12. Rain began last night. 



13. Rain all day. 



14. Rain all day. The old Indian remark is, that the 

 winter does not set in till the ponds be full. It is 

 coming, then. 



15. Rain till 2 o clock. We kill mutton now. Ewes 

 brought from Connecticut, and sold to me here at 2 

 dollars each in July, just after shearing. I sell them 

 now alive at 3 dollars each from the grass. Killed and 

 sent to market, they leave me the loose fat for can 

 dles, and fetch about 3 dollars and a quarter besides. 



1 6. Sharp North West wind. This is the cold American 

 Wind. &quot; A North Wester &quot; means all that can be 

 imagined of clear in summer and cold in winter. I 

 remember hearing from that venerable and excellent 

 man, Mr. BARON MASERES, a very elegant eulogium 

 on the Summer North Wester, in England. This 

 is the only public servant that I ever heard of who 

 refused a proffered augmentation of salary 1 



17. A hardish frost. 



1 8. Open weather again. 



19. Fine mild day ; but began freezing at night-fall. 



20. Hard frost. 



21. Very sharp indeed. Thermometer down to 10 

 ,jj degrees ; that is to say, 22 degrees colder than 



iV il barely freezing. 



22. Same weather. Makes us run, where we used to 

 walk in the fall, and to saunter in the summer. It 

 is no new thing to me ; but it makes our other 

 English people shrug up their shoulders. 



23. Frost greatly abated. Stones show for wet. It will 

 come, in spite of all the fine serene sky, which we 

 now see. 



24. A thaw. Servants made a lot of candles from mutton 

 and beef fat, reserving the coarser parts to make 

 soap. 



25. Rain. Had some English friends. Sirloin of own 

 beef. Spent the evening in light of own candles, 

 as handsome as I ever saw, and, I think the very 

 best I ever saw. The reason is, that the tallow is 

 fresh, and that it is unmixed with grease, which, and 

 staleness, is the cause, I believe, of candles running, 

 and plaguing us while we are using them. What an 

 injury is it to the farmers in England, that they dare 

 not, in this way, use their own produce : Is it not a 



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