HISTORY OF VERMONT. 71 



In this change of dimate, the first effect 

 which is generally observed, is an alteration in 

 the temperature. The cold of the winters de- 

 crease ; the rivers are not frozen so soon, so 

 thick, or so long, as they formerly were ; and 

 tlie effects of extreme cold, in every respect, 

 appear to be diminished. A remarkable change 

 of this kind, has been obsen^ed in all the settled 

 parts of North America. The bays and ri^'ers 

 in New England, are not frozen so hard, or so 

 long, as they were at the first settlement of the 

 country.* At the first settlement of Philadel- 

 phia, the river Delaware was commonly cover- 

 ed with ice, about the middle of November, 

 old style. t It is not now commonly covered 

 with ice, until the first week in January. Sim- 

 ilar observations have been made with regard to 

 the ice in Hudson's river. J The baron Lahon- 

 tan gaVe this account of the river St. LaVvrence, 

 at Quebec, in 1690 : " I put to sea the twen- 

 tieth of November, new style, the like of which 

 was never seen in that place before. The ice 

 had covered the river on the thirteenth and four- 

 teenth of November, but was carried off by a 

 sudden thaw."|l The river is not frozen over 

 now until the latter end of December, or the 

 beginning of January. The ancient people at 

 Quebec, in 1749, informed Mr. Kalm, that the 

 winters in Canada were formerly much colder, 

 than they were then.§ Similar observations 

 liave been made in almost every part of North 



> New England's Prospect, by W. Wood % written in 1633,?' 4- 



■y Kalm's Travels, Vol. I. p. 410. 



+ Smith's History of Newyork. 



I] Voyages to North America, p. ifij, 



^ Kalm's Travels, Vwl. II. p. 3^3. 



