J2 INtRODUCTIOKi 



lands might not be fo great as that of Cartliagefria^ 

 To my certain knowledge, the weather in fome parts 

 of the Highlands of Scotland is very cold : The 

 nights are frequently frofty in the middle of fummer. 

 When I was a boy, I remember the ground to have 

 been covered with a deep fnow for thirteen weeks ; 

 I think it was about the year 1769. In the year 

 1791, at Croydon, which is ten miles fouth of Lon- 

 don, in the month of June there were feveral frofly 

 nights. 



In Penfylvania, in latitude 40°, the cold brought 

 the mercury to 5, in 1732: At Paris, in 1709 and 

 17 10, the mercury funk to 8 : At Leyden, in 1729, 

 to 5: And at Utrecht, to 4. At London, in 1709 

 and 1710, the cold funk the fpirits almofl down to 

 the artificial cold of an ice and fait mixture : And in 

 1709, the mercury funk to o at Copenhagen, lat. 

 55° 43^ At Upfal, in 1732, the mercury was. at one 

 degree below o : And at Peterfburgh, lat. 59° ^6'^ 

 the cold was fevere enough to fmk the mercury to 

 28 below 6. But in more northern latitudes, the 

 cold is" much more extreme. Maupertuis, who win- 

 tered at the north polar circle in 1736-7, found the 

 degree of cold at Torneo *, lat. 6^° 5 1 '^ fufficient to 

 have made the mercury fink to 33 below o: And 

 yet this degree of cold is inconfiderable, compared 

 tvith that which may be produced by art. In our 

 climate, the heat of the air is moll agreeable from 50 

 to 65- In captain Cook's voyage round the world, 



* Torneo is a town in Sweden ; and it is faid, the cold is fo 

 fcveve tlicrc, that fometimes people lofe their fingers, and toes.- 



m 



