PHYSICAL CLIMATE. 507 



temperature of Melville Island should have been nearly 36, whereas it was only li, or 

 upwards of 30 below the freezing point. This severity of cold, though generally borne 

 without inconvenience when proper precautions were observed, had a striking influence 

 on the mental as well as the corporeal faculties when imprudently encountered, producing 

 a wild look, an indistinct utterance, and an air of stupidity resembling that which is often 

 caused by intoxication. 



It is an inquiry of some interest, whether the general temperature of the globe is 

 stable, or is gradually undergoing change through diminution or addition. We have no 

 means of deciding this point, because our thermometrical determinations are confined to 

 a comparatively modern date. The instrument was not brought to perfection until the 

 year 1724, by Fahrenheit, and therefore beyond that period we are dependent upon the 

 recorded experience and sensations of observers, and upon the details of agricultural 

 failure or success, for our knowledge of temperature in former times. We are not war 

 ranted to infer from these casual notices any change of physical climate generally within 

 the era of authentic history, though in particular localities, there is strong reason to sup 

 pose that an alteration has taken place ; but this has been the very reverse of an impres 

 sion that once prevailed respecting it. The existence of a colony on the east coast of 

 Greenland, cut off from communication with the external world, and destroyed by the 

 gradual accumulation of the ice upon its shores the fact of immense forests anciently 

 clothing the highest parts of Britain, and other northern countries, where a tree now can 

 scarcely be made to grow of the period of the vintage formerly commencing several 

 weeks earlier in France than at present of vineyards having been planted in the south 

 of England during the time that the Romans held possession of the island, where hops 

 can only be raised with difficulty and of the sides of the Scottish hills bearing evident 

 traces of the plough, which have long been surrendered to the heaths as incapable of 

 cultivation; these circumstances have been appealed to, as evidence of a milder and 

 more genial climate having once characterised the northern regions of Europe. Sir John 

 Leslie has remarked upon these details, " that a patch of wood will not thrive in cold 

 situations, merely for want of the shelter which is afforded by extensive plantations. In 

 Sweden and Norway, which are mostly covered with natural forests, it has become an 

 object of police to prevent their indiscriminate destruction. The timber in those sylvan 

 countries is cut at stated periods of its growth, and in detached portions ; the vacant 

 spaces being left as nurseries, embosomed amidst an expanse of tall trees. Some places in 

 Sweden, where the forests have been accidentally destroyed by fire, present the image of 

 sterility, and of wide desolation. It is probable, that the vines grown in ancient times 

 were coarser and hardier plants than those which are now cultivated. A similar 

 observation extends to all the productions of gardening. A succession of diligent 

 culture softens the character of the vegetable tribes, and renders them more delicate, 

 while it heightens the flavour of their fruit. The Roman soldiers stationed in Britain 

 would naturally prefer wine, their accustomed beverage, however harsh and poor, to the 

 cervisia, or unpalatable ale brewed by the rude arts of the natives. The marks of tillage 

 left on our northern hills evince only the wretched state of agriculture at a remote 

 period. For want of a proper system of rotation, and the due application of manure, the 

 starving tenantry were then tempted to tear up with the plough every virgin spot they 

 could find, and after extracting from it a pitiful crop or two of oats, to abandon it to a 

 lasting sterility." With reference to the colony supposed to have been planted on the east 

 coast of Greenland, now an uninhabitable region of glaciers, there is reason to believe that 

 its name, Oestre Bygd, the eastern settlement, simply refers to its position in relation to 

 another settlement, both of which were on the western coast, now occupied by the Danish 

 factories. From the name of Snowland, afterwards supplanted by that of Iceland, given 



