( 2 57 ) 



Moft authors who have handled this niattef af§ 

 Contented with faying that this long and fevere cold 

 is occasioned by the fnow lying fo long on the! 

 ground, that it is not porTible it cati ever be tho- 

 roughly warmed, efpecially in places tinder cover f 

 But this anfvver removes the difficulty only one ilep | 

 for it may be aficed what produces this great quan- 

 tity of fnow in climates as warm as Languedoc and 

 Provence, and in countries at a much greater diftance" 

 from the mountains. 



The Sieur Denys, whom I have already quoted 

 oftner than once, affirms that the trees refume their 

 verdure before the fun is fufficiently elevated above 

 the horizon to melt the fnow or warm the earth % 

 this may be true in Acadia, and over all the fea 

 coafi:, but it is certain that every where elfe the fnow 

 is melted in the thicker! forefts before there is a fi n- 

 gle leaf upon the trees. This author feems to have 

 no better authority for faying that the fnow melts 

 rather by the heat of the earth than that of the air$ 

 and that it always begins to melt from below : but 

 will he perfuade any man that the earth when cover- 

 ed with frozen water, is warmer than the air, which 

 immediately receives the rays of the fun. Befides^ 

 this is no anfwer to the queftion about the caufe of 

 that ' deluge of fnow which overwhelms this Im- 

 liienfe country fituated in the middle of the tempe- 

 rate zone. 



There is no queftion but that generally fpeaking 

 the mountains, forefts, and lakes contribute greatly 

 to it, but it appears to me that we Ought to feek out : 

 for other caufes befides. Father Jofeph Bretani, 

 an Italian Jefuit, who fpent the beft pare of his life- 

 time in Canada, has left behind him in his own lan- 

 guage, an account of New France, wherein he en^ 



Vol. L R desvoBfs 



