62 On the supposed Change 



that region, I have very little information. It is certain, 

 however, that the Danube still freezes ; altho my infor- 

 mation does not enable me to say to what degree. 



2. My second observation is, that the freezing of wine 

 docs not imply great severity of cold. Madeira congeals 

 at 10 '^ above cypher by Farenheit ; and the lighter wines 

 of Italy, Greece and Asia Minor, would, undoubtedly 

 freeze with a less degree of cold. 



3. The accounts which historians give, as well as Ovid, 

 of the irruptions of the barbarians into Thrace and Ita- 

 ly, in winter, by m^eans of a bridge of ice, and the draw- 

 ing of their plaustra upon the ice and snow, demonstrate 

 that the snow was not of a depth beyond what is usual in 

 New^- England. 



4. But we have, in Ovid's 12th elegy, more certain 

 data to judge of the winters in Thrace. The poet, after 

 indulging his fancy in describing the gloomy scenes of a 

 Thracian winter, assumes a more cheerful air, and paints 

 the beauties of the following spring. " Frigora jam 

 zephyri minuunt,'* says Ovid, at the equinox. He 

 then observes that the year past, the winter of Maeotis 

 seemed longer than former winters. Whether he means 

 longer than former winters in the same country, or whe- 

 ther, that being the first winter after his exile, the winter 

 appeared longer to him than it had done in Italy, is not 

 quite certain. If the former, the winter was unusually 

 long, and probably unusually cold ; and therefore not to 

 be considered as a standard of the general temperature 

 of ancient winters. If we are to understand the passage 

 in the latter sense, the remark is rather trifling ; for who 

 could question that a winter in Thrace, would not appear 

 longer to any man than a winter in Italy ; and especially 

 to a wretched exile, forced from his family, his country, 

 and all his former enjoyments ? 



But we must not pass unobserved the facts mentioned 

 by the poet at this time — the spring equinox. 



Now the merry youth, says Ovid, gather violets, 

 which the uncultivated earth produces ; the meads are 

 decorated with blossoms of various hue, and the woods 

 resound with the melody of birds. To this he adds that 

 the swallows appeared and built nests sub trabibus. If 



