72 NATURAL AND CIVIL 



America, ^\here settlements and cultivation 

 have taken place. 



Although the general effect has been every- 

 where apparent, it is not an easy thing to ascer- 

 tain the degree^ to which the temperature has 

 changed, in any particular place. When our 

 ancestors first came into America, thermome- 

 ters were not invented : And they have not left 

 lis any accurate meteorological remarks or ob- 

 servations, from which we can determine the 

 exact degree of cold, which prevailed in their 

 times. Upon looking over the most ancient 

 writers of New England, the only account I 

 have found, which will aiford any distinct in- 

 formation upon this subject, is the following 

 passage ; referring to years previous to 1633. 

 *' The extremity of this cold weather lasteth 

 but for two months, or ten weeks, beginning in 

 December^ and breaking up the tenth day bf 

 February (21st new stile) which hath become a 

 passage very remarkable, that for ten or a dozen 

 years, the weather hath held himself to his day, 

 unlocking his icy bays and rivers, which are 

 never frozen again the same year, except there 

 be some small frost until the middle oi 3Iarc/i.'"^ 

 The winter is less severe now in several res- 

 pects : The extremity of tlie cold weather does 

 Ti6t come on so soon by several weeks ; the 

 bays at Boston, nistcad of being annually cover- 

 ed with ice, are but seldom frozen to this de- 

 gree ; and they do not continue in this state a 

 longer time than eight or ten days. In the 

 year 1782, the harbour between Boston and 

 Charlesto\vn was frozen to such a degree, that 



f Wood's Prospect, p. 4. 



