1-4 X)n the supposed Changt 



tion of the seas, in the beginning of Vv^hich, Favonius, the 

 west wind, mitigates the severity of winter, about the 

 time when the sun enters the 25th degree of Aquarius. 

 That time is the 6th day before the ides of February." 

 This was the 8th day of the month, and this w^as ac- 

 counted the beginning of spiing. Virgil, in his 3d 

 Georgic, confirms this declaration of Phny, and speaks 

 of the commencement of the rainy season, that is, the 

 spring xains, about the last of January, 



" Cum fiigidus olim 



Jam cadit, extreraoque irrotat Aquarius anno"— 



when cold Aquarius now sets and sprinkles his dews, at 

 the close of the year. This refers to the old Roman 

 year which ended the last of February, the month when 

 Aquarius set. The name of this sign indicates that the 

 season was raimj ; and the testimony of both these au- 

 thors concurs, in proof that the winter was considered at 

 an end, the beginning of February. 



Aquilo, the northeast wind, began to blow, about 

 the setting of Pleiades or the se^ en stars, which was near 

 tlie 3d of the Ides of November, answering to the 10th 

 day of the month.... Pliny, lib. 2. 47.* This was the 

 introduction of cool weather. The Septentrio, or north 

 wind from the Alps, was the coldest wind, and blew 

 mostly in December and January. 



Severe winter weather set in about the last week in 

 December. The halcyon days were seven days before 

 a;nd as many after, the winter solstice, when the king- 

 fisher was said to tranquilize the sea. This period of 

 mild or calm weather seems to have resembled our " In- 

 dian Summer," a period of fine weather that often hap- 

 pens just before winter. The fable of the halcyon days 

 is no inconsiderable proof, that the winter did not set in 

 with rigor till after the winter solstice. 



* By the precession of the Equinoxes, that con'stellation now 

 sets about three ■vveeks later, or the first week in December. But 

 our modern Calendar corresponds nearly with the Julian Calendar 

 in Pliny's time. The name Aquariu^^ given by the Romans to the 

 sign which the Sun passes in the midst of winter, demonstrates that 

 ram and not snow, predominated as the characteriatic of that month. 



