OLD ALMANACS. 



33 



one long essay on the breast-bone of the goose 

 made me shiver to read, although the day was 

 warm, and in spite of the assurance that each of 

 the " phenomenally cold periods " would be alter- 

 nated by " spells of fall-like weather." Not one 

 hit the nail upon the head and foretold that De- 

 cember and January would be winter with winter 

 left out. And only to-day (January 31) I find in 

 a local paper that the musk-rats are stopping up 

 the entrances to their homes, and February will 

 be very cold. Perhaps ! On the other hand, I 

 have just received Volume I of the Geological 

 Survey of New Jersey, in which is a most interest- 

 ing chapter on the climate of this State. Look- 

 ing over a tabulated statement of the weather, as 

 characteristic of seasons, I find that we have 

 had six notably mild winters in the past forty 

 years, that of '8i-'82 being "one of the warmest 

 on record." Armed with these facts, I hunted 

 up our oldest neighbor, Zephaniah Blank, and 

 plied him with questions. Of course, as I 

 intended, the conversation turned upon the 

 weather, as it usually does, and he was very 

 positive that we had had no such winter as the 

 present for nigh on to thirty years." The old 

 gentleman could recollect the moderately warm 

 winter of '57-'s8, but that of '8i-'82 had passed 

 from his mind. Had a reporter overheard our 

 talk upon the subject, the local paper would 



