SECRETARY'S REPORT. 



before," we may infer that no great suffering had occurred 

 from droughts up to that time. 



Several of the preceding summers, on the contrary, had been 

 exceedingly wet and cold, like that of 1632, causing "great 

 store of mosquitoes and rattlesnakes,'" while the worms made 

 extensive ravages on the corn. 



The next drought of any severity was that in 1639, when 

 little or no rain fell from the 26th of April till the 10th of 

 June. There was a very general alarm. " The corn began to 

 wither, and great fear there was it would all be lost." A fast 

 being appointed on account of the drought, "the very day after 

 there fell a good shower." The other years in which droughts 

 occurred, previous to 1650, were 1644, 1647, and 1648; that 

 of 1647 causing great scarcity of provisions. But during 

 this time, more than one winter was remarkable for its severity. 

 In 1641-2, "Boston Bay was a bridge of ice as far as the 

 eye could see, and the Indians asserted that such a winter had 

 not been known in forty years." Men, oxen, horses and carts 

 passed over the ice with perfect safety for five weeks together ; 

 and in the spring of 1642, the price of cows, which had been 

 as high as £22, suddenly fell to £6, £7, and £8. The winters 

 of 1630, 1632, and 1639, also, are mentioned as very sharp and 

 " terrible cold ; " but it is probable that they were so only as 

 contrasted with those of England, or on account of want of 

 sufficient protection against their rigor. In 1645, the winter 

 was said to be " the earliest and sharpest since we arrived in 

 the country," while 1646 and 1649 were caterpillar years. 



In the next ten years no considerable drought occurred. 

 But the severe winter of 1654 is worthy of notice, as it has 

 some relation to what follows. As early as the 16th of De- 

 cember, the cold was of sufficient intensity to freeze over Bos- 

 ton Bay, so " that in a very few days it was firm to pass betwixt 

 the town and Long Island, and so continued above a month." 

 The harbor was again frozen over in 1659. The canker worms, 

 in 1658, 1659, 1660, and 1661, made great havoc with the apples 

 in Boston and vicinity, and the trees looked in June as if it 

 were November. In 1658, the caterpillars, also, did great harm 

 to fruit trees. 



Then came in 1662, early in the season, a very great drought, 



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