228 Meteorological Phenomena. 



Boston, Portland, New Bury, New Haven, Philadelphia, Baltimore, 

 and Washington, were frozen over ; and on the 3d, when the ther- 

 mometer at Berlin stood all day and night above the freezing point, 

 carts passed over the frozen Potomac. 



The cold Easter of the year 1835 must be still in the remem- 

 brance of every one. Thick falls of snow gave a very winterly 

 look to Good Friday, on the Banks of the Ilhine, from Bonn to 

 Mavencc, although the peach and cherry trees were covered with 

 blossom. In Berlin the wind blew from the SW., but without any 

 snow. Generally the weather was much more stormy on the banks 

 of the Bhine than at Berlin. It was still worse in England, where 

 the cold set in on the Wednesday evening. It snowed as in Decem- 

 ber, and froze on the open plains during the daytime ; the blossom, 

 too, was much injured, for this severe cold had been preceded by 

 beautiful spring weather. The waggons which entered London from 

 the north on Good Friday were covered with snow. An unusual de- 

 gree of cold was also universally felt in Italy. It was more severe in 

 westerly countries than in the east, for it came from the west. Such 

 phenomena as these repeat themselves generally after some time with 

 diminished strength, then they suddenly cease, and winter is finally 

 conquered. 



If it be supposed that a cold winter always follows a hot summer, 

 it is as much as to say that the current which flowed over the place 

 of observation during the summer would flow in the same direction 

 during the winter. That certainly would be much to gain from a 

 current that is never arbitrarily confined to one bed. 



During the hot summer of 1822, there was no ice to be had in 

 Berlin, for the preceding winter had been so mild that they had not 

 been able to collect any. The years 1811-19-22-34, which are 

 celebrated as good vintage years, were preceded by mild winters or 

 springs. On the contrary, the cold which lasted from January to 

 June 1815, was followed by a period of scarcity of which Western 

 Europe will long retain the remembrance. It was then that Odessa, 

 which during that time enjoyed the mild temperature of Eastern 

 Europe, became celebrated for its commerce ; its annual exports of 

 grain, from 1815 to 1817, increasing from 11 to 38 millions of 

 roubles. The relative extreme of cold was experienced during that 

 year in England, and America had also its share in the decrease of 

 temperature. The west of Europe, therefore, looked to the east as a 

 general source of supply during that period. The repetition of these 

 relations in connection with England during the years 1837-38, 

 during which time East Prussia had favourable weather, stands in 

 direct association with the briskness of the discussion on the Corn-law 

 question, for the more unshackled the commercial intercourse of na- 

 tions becomes, so much the more impossible is it that a famine should 

 take place ; the trading resources of a country where scarcity prevails 

 being used as the means of obtaining supplies from a country dis- 

 tinguished for temporary abundance. 



