64 On the supposed Change 



modem days, I know not — for unfortunately modern 

 travellers furnish little information on the subject. Pel- 

 loutier, who has cited most of the authorities of antiqui- 

 ty on this subject, says, the freezing of the Rhine, the 

 Danube, the Elbe, the Weser, and the Oder, in such a 

 manner as to sustain armies, is now an extraordinary 

 event, which happens scarcely once in ten years — " La 

 chose arrivera a peine une fois dansdix s.ns.^\...IIist. des 

 Celts, lib. 1. ch. 12. But Cluver says, " Danubius in 

 Germania glaciem fert."....Z/f6. i. 12. The Danube in 

 Germany bears or is covered with ice. 



Let it be remarked that at the battle of Austerlitz, 

 Dec. 2, the Russian troops were said to have crossed a 

 lake on the ice. Bonaparte, in his account of the action, 

 represented that most of them fell through the ice and 

 were drowned ; but by the official Russian account, it 

 appears that the troops passed over in safety. 



Let it be further remarked that Cesar, in his history 

 of his seven campaigns in Gaul, during which his troops 

 were often disturbed in winter by insurrections of the 

 inhabitants, which obliged them to leave their w^inter 

 quarters, and march great distances, tho he often men- 

 tions the extreme hardships suffered by his troops in 

 these marches, and particularly the difficulty of trans- 

 porting baggage, has not mentioned the word snow 

 [nivis] in a single instance, if my memory does not de- 

 ceive me, except when speaking of the march over the 

 Cevennes; and on these mountains, snowfalls in modern 

 da^'S to a depth equal to that mentioned by Cesar.... ♦Si?*? 

 Fin kerf on Geog. France. 



But whatever may be the fact with respect to the cli- 

 mate of Germany, there is positive evidence that the 

 rivers in Greece and Italy did not freeze to any conside- 

 rable degree at the christian era. Pausanias, after men- 

 tioning the freezing of the Danube and other northern 

 rivers, describes the water of the rivers in Arcadia as fit 

 for bathing even in winter.... Z/Z*^'. viii. 28. Herodian, 

 speaking of the discontents (on account of the climate,) 

 which prevailed among the troops of Commodus, who 

 performed service on the Danube, and who complained 

 that they had frozen water to drink, speaks of the rivers 



