in the Temperature of JVinter. 29 



ses. The first of these winters was mild like spring, with 

 southerly xvinds. The second winter northerly \^inds 

 prevailed, and great rains, attended with snow. This 

 seems to have been a common season. The third winter, 

 the weather was northerly, the cold severe, and the snow 

 deep. This seems to have been a hard winter, and if I 

 am not deceived in the chronology of events, this w^as 

 within a few months of the appearance of a comet, and 

 the great eruption of Etna mentioned by Thiicydides. 



The fourth winter was mild, with southerly wind, ex- 

 cept a period of severe cold about the equinox, in 

 Maixh. 



This authority is indisputable, that the winters in an- 

 cient times, were, as they are now, irregular and vari- 

 ous ; and instead of being uniformly rigorous, some 

 were mild as spring. 



In later periods, I find occasional mention of mild 

 winters, although little notice has been taken of seasons, 

 except when extraordinary for cold. The winter of 802 

 was southerly, mild weather, followed by the plauge. 

 Mild winters are also mentioned in 1186, 1248, 1281, 

 1284, 1428, in some of which people wore summer clothes 

 the whole winter, and in one instance harvest, in northern 

 latitudes was in May, in consequence of the warm 

 weather in the winter preceding. These winters were 

 antecedent to any great improvements in agriculture in 

 Europe. 



It may not be improper here to introduce a fact rela- 

 ted by Theophrast, of a change of temperature in Thes- 

 saly. 



The river Peneus winds through a charming valley 

 in Thessaly, and between the mountains Olympus and 

 Ossa, finds a passage to the iEgean sea. This passage, 

 the ancients alledged, was opened by an earthquake ; 

 before which the valley was covered with stagnant wa- 

 ter. The draining of this valley is said to have rendered 

 the country more healthy, but at the same time, the air 

 became colder. In proof of this, authors aliedge that 

 olives, which before had flourished, about Larissa, v/ould 

 not endure the severity of the winters, after the valley 



