36 On the supposed Change 



On the 22d day of December, O. S. Governor Win- 

 throp writes thus : " Till this time there was for the 

 most part, fair open weather, with gentle frosts in the 

 night ; but this day the wind came N. W. very strong, 

 and some snow withal, but so cold as some had their 

 fingers frozen — three of the Governor's servants coming 

 in a shallop from Mistick, were driven by the wind upon 

 Noddle's Island"..../?. 21. At this time then, the 3d of 

 January, new stile, there was no ice in Charles River. 



On the 26th, the Governor writes, " The rivers are 

 frozen up, and they of Charlestown could not come to 

 the sermon at Boston, till the afternoon at high water." 

 By this we are to understand, that Charles River at the 

 ferry was full of ice, which was removed by the flood 

 tide, so that the river was passable in boats. This was' 

 on the 6th of January. On the 28th of December, O. S. 

 the 8th of January, seven persons, says the Governor, 

 set sail in a shallop, from Boston for Plymouth, and 

 were cast away on Cape Cod. Boston harbor and bay 

 must then have been o^&n....See p. 21 and 22. 



On the 5th of February, O. S. [the 16th] arrived the 

 ship Lyon, at Nantasket. On the 8th [the 19th] the 

 Governor went aboard the Lyon, then lying by Long- 

 Island. On the 9th [20th] the Lyon came to anchor 

 before Boston. On the 10th, O. S. [21st] says Gover- 

 nor Winthrop, " the frost broke up, and after that, tho 

 we had many storms and sharp frost, yet they continued 

 not, neither were the waters frozen up as before." The 

 Governor then remarks, that for seven years before, the 

 frost had broken up, on the same day of the month.... 

 Seep. 23. t 



This evidence is decisive to prove, that the breaking 

 up of the ice was not said of the ice in Boston harbor ; 

 for the Governor went down to the ship Lyon, at Long 

 Island, which is almost five miles from the town, and 

 the ship came to anchor before Boston, before the ice 

 broke up. Let it be noted also, that the severe frost, in 

 that year, set in about Christmas, and broke up on the 

 2 1st of February ; of course, it lasted about eight weeks, 

 as in modern times. 



It is obvious therefore that Gov. Winthrop and Mr. 

 Wood, in the passages noted, speak of the breaking up 



