S© On the supposed Change 



was drained, and vines were often froze, which before 

 was never known to happen.... /S'ce Anacharsis^ vol. iii. 

 341. 



Whatever foundation may exist for this opinion, it 

 «eems the inhabitants had an idea that their chmate had 

 become colder^ instead of warmer ; and it is \vell known 

 that places surrounded by vA^ater have a milder climate, 

 than others remote from water. This, by the way, is 

 the principal reason why Greece and Italy are more tem- 

 perate than other countries under the same parellels of 

 latitude. 



Let us now attend to the evidence of a mitigation of 

 the cold of American winters. The first proof adduced 

 by Dr. Williams, is what Kalm says, that on the first 

 settlement of Philadelphia, the Delaware was commonly 

 covered with ice about the middle of November, old 

 style, corresponding with the last week of the month, in 

 new style. But, says our author, " it is not now com- 

 monly covered with ice till the first week in January".,.. 

 Hist. Vermont, p. 58. 



Unfortunately for the argument, that river has been 

 covered with ice for three years last past, not only by the 

 middle of November, old style, but in one or two of the 

 years, by the middle of that month, in 7iew st}ie. 



Dr. Williams quotes Smith's history of New- York to 

 prove his doctrine ; the page is not mentioned, but I 

 suppose the passage to be a note in the margin of page 

 82, where the author says " The climate of late is much 

 altered, and this day, Feb. 14, 1756, three hundred re- 

 cruits sailed from New- York for the army at Albany, 

 and last year a sloop went up the river a month earlier." 



It is thus men are misled by founding general opin- 

 ions on particular facts. The truth I find to be, that at 

 the period mentioned, there were two or three winters 

 in succession the most mild that were recollected by the 

 oldest men ; and all the world cried out, what a change 

 of climate ! A few years however changed the common 

 opinion, and a few such winters as 1780, 1784, 1796 — 

 97 — 98 and 1804, will leave very little room to believe 

 in a change of climate. 



