38 JAXUABY. 



describe any particular season, but speak of them 

 generally; for it is a subject of universal wonder 

 that our old-fashioned winters, such as I have here 

 depicted, are quite gone. With the exception of 

 1829 and 1830, we have not had a severe winter 

 for many years. For the last twenty years the 

 winters have been progressively getting milder and 

 more open. We have not had those long-conti- 

 nued frosts deep, lane-filling, hedge-burying snows, 

 which we had formerly. Skates have almost be- 

 come obsolete ; snow-balling is quite traditional ; 

 and the stopping of the mails by the drifts, a won- 

 derful occurrence. Old Mother Shipton's prophecy, 

 that summer shall only be distinguished from winter 

 by the leaves on the trees, seems fast coming upon 

 us. Many are the speculations of the weather-wise 

 on the causes of this : with one, it is the breaking- 

 up of the ice in the polar regions with another, the 

 decrease of the American forests with a third, the 

 increased population and cultivation of Europe 

 with others, the approach of a comet ; though John 

 Evelyn tells us that a comet and the great frost in 

 his time, when the Thames was frozen over and a 

 fair held on it, came together. The fact is, the 

 knowing ones are completely thrown out they 

 cannot tell how it happens ; and ere long, we may 

 probably find ourselves, with as little apparent rea- 

 son, in the midst of the old winters again. Even 

 while I am now writing, (January 7th, 1835,) the 

 frost which set in on New-year's Day has continued 

 with a rigour and an aspect that promises a tole- 



