i7i the Temperature of Winter. 2-7 



'■particular rivers ; but the general accounts describe these 

 and many other winters, during the two hist centuries, as 

 converting all rivers into highways for carriages, even as 

 far south as Italy and Spain. But I have better proof of 

 the fact. It is v/ell known that the winters in England 

 are much milder than in tlie same latitmde on the ton- 

 tinent. This is ahvays the case, and an undeniable 

 fact. Now I have accounts that the Thames at London 

 has been covered with solid ice, equal to the support of 

 the heaviest loads, not only in most of the years mention- 

 ed, but in many others, during the two last centuries. 

 •From ten to fifteen or twenty rigorous winters occur, in 

 every century, which convert most of the s?n a II rivGrs of 

 Germany, France and England into highways ; and sev- 

 eral winters, in every century, produce the same effect 

 in all the la?'ge rivers. 



No longer ago than 1717, when Lady'Montague trav- 

 elled from Vienna to Constantinople, in the midst of 

 winter, the navigation of the Danube was interrupted by 

 the ice. In a letter dated at Belgrade Feb. 12, O. S. 

 1717, that lady says, " The weather is colder than I be- 

 lieve it ever w^as any where but in Greenland : We have 

 a very large stove constantly kept hot, and yet the win- 

 dows of the room are frozen on the inside." Between 

 the date of that letter and the first of April, O. S. she 

 pursued her journey to Adrianople, during which time, 

 that is in March^ she expressl}^ says, " The Danube was 

 now frozen over"'.... See her Letter of April 1. 



This was not a winter of the greatest severity, though 

 in Eno'land somethins; colder than ordinarv....See Short 

 on Air, vol. ii. 20. The preceding winter had convert- 

 ed all rivers into bridges, even in Italy. What shall we 

 then say to the assertions of such celebrated men as Gib- 

 bon? and what shall we think of the modern philosophy, 

 erected on the authority of a few superficial inquiries ? 



The climate at Constantinople is milder than on the 

 Danube; and in January 1718, Lady Montague sat with 

 her window open, enjoying a fine warm sun. ...Letter 38. 

 But this was an uncommon occurrence. In 1751, the 

 people of Constantinople predicted the plague which ra- 

 ged terribly that year, from the great snows of the prece- 



