in the Temperature of JVinter. 67 



In page 197, the author, speaking of New- York, states 

 that the harbor is good., and never froze except in extra- 

 'Ordinary cold weather ; but he says, page 208, the winters 

 at New- York are niiich more severe than in Pennsylva- 

 nia. He says afterwards, that the ice stands on the Hud- 

 'Son several months., by which he must mean the ice on 

 that river in the interior country. January 21, 1749, 

 people walked over the Delaware at Philadelphia on the 

 ice ; but no one ventured to ride over on horseback. 

 But in page 362, the author informs us, that the river 

 ^vas covered with ice soon after new year, and the ice 

 became so strong that people rode over on horseback — 

 the ice continued to the Stli of Februar}^, when the river 

 was cleared. 



The old men, of whom Kalm made inquiries respect- 

 ing a change in the seasons, all agreed in the fact, that 

 when the country was first settled, the weather was more 

 uniform than it was in their time. Most of them were 

 of opinion, that more snow fell when they were young; 

 that the winters begaa earlier ; and that the springs were 

 also earlier. It was a saying among the old Swedes, that 

 they had always grass at Easter, whether early or late. 



Mr. Norris, one of the first settlers of Philadelphia, 

 and a merchant, related, that in his younger years, the 

 Delavv^are was usually covered with ice by the middle of 

 November, old style. One old Swede, who remembered 

 the very severe winter of 1697-8, was of opinion, there 

 had been little change in the winters — that there were 

 as great storms and as cold winters in his old age as in 

 his childhood. 



Kalm, however, in his second volume, page 43, insti- 

 tutes a comparison between Old and New Sweden, as 

 he terms the two countries, in which he mentions, 

 among the disadvantages of New Sweden, or Delaware 

 and Pennsylvania, that the nights are darker than in Old 

 Sweden, where they are in pai't illuminated by snow and 

 the lumen boreale. In tliis paragraph he says expressly, 

 that the winters bring no permanent snow in Pennsylva- 

 ,nia, to make the niglits clear and travelling safe. The 

 coldj he says, is often intense as in Old Sweden ; but 



