i 254 ) 



to ftir out of doors without being frozen, sit leafe 

 without being wrapt up in furs like a bear. More- 

 over, what a fpe&acle is it to behold one continued 

 tracl: of fnow, which pains the fight, and hides from 

 your view all the beauties of nature ? No more dif- 

 ference between the rivers and fields* no more 

 variety, even the trees are covered with fnow- 

 froft, with large icicles depending from all their 

 branches, under which you cannot pafs with fafety. 

 "What can a man think who fees the horfes with 

 beards of ice more than a foot long, and who cari 

 travel in a country, where, for the fpace of fix 

 months, the bears themfelves dare not mew their 

 faces to the weather ? Thus I have never pafTed a 

 winter in this country without feeing fome one or 

 Other carried to the hofpital, and who was obliged 

 to have his legs or arms cut off on account of their 

 being benumbed and frozen. In a word, if the fky 

 Is clear, the wind which blows from the well is in- 

 tolerably piercing. If it turns to the fouth or eaft, 

 the weather becomes a little more moderate, but fd 

 thick a fnow falls, that there is no feeing ten paces 

 before you, even at noon-day. On the other hand* 

 If a compleat thaw comes on, farewel to the yearly 

 flock of capons, quarters of beef and mutton, poul- 

 try and fifh, which they h-ad laid up in granaries^ 

 depending on the continuance of the froft ; fo that 

 in fpite of the exceflive feverity of the cold, people 

 are reduced to the neceffity of wifhing for ks conti- 

 nuance. 



It is in vain to fay that the winters are not now 

 as levere as they were four and twenty years ago, and 

 that in all probability they will become ftill milder 

 in the fequel: the fufferings of thofe who have gone 

 before us, and the happinefs of fuch as may come 

 after us, are no remedies againfl: a prefcnt evil, un- 



