134 THE RETROSPECT OF THE TEAR. 



cast away at night on Cape Cod, in a terrible snow storm, 

 which continued a week. He also referred to more recent 

 seasons, and of the cold winter of 1856-7, when in one 

 week in January was the coldest day by the thermometer 

 ever recorded of late years, mercury in Salem 20 below 

 zero. Travel on the railroad between Boston and Salem 

 entirely suspended from Tuesday morning to Thursday af- 

 ternoon. The recent mild winters were also alluded to. 

 The lecturer exhibited an interesting diagram which he 

 had prepared, showing at a glance the comparative sever- 

 ity and mildness of each winter from 1629 to the present 

 time. 



Monday, March 31, 1890. Mr. George G. Russell 

 of this city read a paper on his experiences at the Ander- 

 sonville prison in 1864. He was captured at the battle of 

 the Wilderness and was a prisoner eight months, four of 

 which he spent in " Andersonville," then under the charge 

 of Gen. J. H. Winder, commander of the " confederate" 

 prisons, to whom, no doubt, were due the sufferings of 

 the Union men in those prisons. At the close of the war 

 General Winder died from disease contracted in one of 

 those southern prisons. 



Monday, April 7, 1890. Mr. Robert Rayner of this 

 city read a paper on "Means of Communication." The 

 lecturer said that these were a criterion of the civilization 

 of a country, and good artificial means are found where the 

 civilization is high and good. In one hundred and fifty 

 years great ^ogress has been made, but only in the last 

 half of that period has land communication become gen- 

 eral. The ancient Romans built fine roads, views of which 

 remain to this day. They generally made them of con- 

 crete three feet in depth. It was thought their durability 

 was partly owing to the lime used which remained, after 



