"22 ^n the supposed Change 



prevented by the want of boats. They employed a strat- 

 agem, and took possession of the boats bclongmg to the 

 people or nation that inhabited the banks of that river, 

 and by this means passed over, and subsisted for the re- 

 maining part of the winter, on the provisions they found 

 on the other side. If the freezing of that river was a ve- 

 ry common event, it is singular that Cesar, in all his 

 wars in the adjacent countries, had not one occasion to 

 mention the circumstance. 



Cesar, in his 7th book of the Gallic War, mentions a 

 winter campaign he made to quell an insurrection in the 

 south of France. He was obliged to cross mount Ce- 

 benna, now Cevennes, in Languedoc, cutting a way 

 through snow six feet deep. From this description of 

 the snow, a superficial reader would draw the conclusion 

 that the climate was intensely cold. Yet this was not 

 the fact ; for the river Loire, in the neighborhood, was 

 not frozen so as to sustain troops ; and in the siege of the 

 town of Avaricus, Cesar relates, that the town was pro- 

 iected by a river and a morass. 



The truth is, the mountain where the snow was then 

 six feet deep, is high, and is annually covered with deep 

 snow in this age ; while the plains below enjoy a fine 

 ivarm climate, that brings figs and olives to perfection. 

 For these facts, I have the authority of Busching,... 

 Abridg. vol. 5. and Arthur Young. Pinkerton de- 

 :scribes the snows of these mountains in the following 

 terms. "These mountains are in winter exposed to 

 dreadful snowy hurricanes, called acirsy which, in a few 

 hours, obliterate the ravins and even the precipices, and 

 'descending to the paths and streets, confine the inhabit- 

 :ants to their dwellings, till a communication can be open- 

 ted with their neighbors, sometimes in the form of an 

 arch under the vast mass of snow." This surely proves 

 no moderation of the winters in France. 



But let us attend to the vegetables which in the Au- 

 •■gustan age flourished in GauL These, after all, are our 

 ".safest guides. 



