In City and Country 295 



their interrupted business. These circumstances 

 are what make the storm so extraordinary. 



Storms far more severe, attended by an intense 

 cold which we have not suffered, and continuing 

 longer their fury, are familiar in our far West, 

 and we have been well acquainted with the news 

 of the destruction of cattle and sheep and the loss 

 of human life in these blizzards. Three feet on 

 a level, with a driving wind, is not so nearly un 

 precedented on the Berkshire, Hampshire and 

 Vermont hills, or in mountainous New Hamp 

 shire, or the Maine woods. The great storm of 

 1717 covered very much the same regions that 

 the present one has, but there was then not much 

 more to interfere with in all its extent than there 

 is now in the rural territories just mentioned. 

 The ancient storm in question is thus spoken of 

 in Noah Webster s &quot; Elements of Useful Knowl 

 edge,&quot; published in 1806: 



&quot;In February, 1717, fell the greatest snow ever 

 known in this, or perhaps any country. It covered 

 the lower doors of houses so that some people were 

 obliged to step out of their chamber windows on 

 snowshoes. There was also a terrible tempest. 

 Eleven hundred sheep belonging to one man 

 perished. One flock was dug out of a snow 

 drift on Fisher s Island, where they had been 

 buried to the depth of 15 feet. This was 28 days 



