184 
ON VINEYARDS. 
Vineyards are of very ancient date, and wine is allowed to 
be the firfl fermented liquor known to man \ 
It 
“ general complaints of Intenfe frofl and eternal winter, are, perhaps, little 
“ to be regarded, fince we have no method of reducing to the accurate 
“ ftandard of the thermometer, the feelings or the expreffions of an orator 
“ born in the happier regions of Greece or Afia. But I fhall feledl two 
“ ftrong and inconteftable proofs of a lefs equivocal nature. 
“ ift. The great rivers which covered the Roman provinces, the Rhine and the 
“ Danube, were frequently frozen over, and capable of fupporting the 
“ moft enormous weights. The Barbarians, who often chofe that fevcre 
“ feafon for their inroads, tranfported, without apprehenfion or danger, 
“ their numerous armies, their cavalry, and their heavy waggons, over a vaft 
and folid bridge of icef. Modern ages have notprefented an inftance of 
“ a like phaenomenon. 
“ 2d. The rein deer, that ufeful animal, from whom the favage of the North 
“ derives the beft comforts of his dreary life, is of a conftitution that fupports, 
“ and even requires the moft intenfe cold. He is found on the rock of 
“ Spitzberg, within ten degrees of the Pole. He feems to delight in the 
“ ino'/fs oi Lapland and Siberia-, but at prefent he cannot fubfift, much 
“ lefs multiply, in any country to the South of the Baltic %. In the time 
“ of 
f Diodorus Siculus, lib. v. p. 349- Edit. JVeJJ'el. Herodian, lib. vi. p. 221. 
'Jornandes, chap. 55. On the banks of the Danube, the wine, when brought to table, 
was frequently frozen into great lumps, frufta vini. Ovid Epiji. exPonto,\\h. iv. 7,9, i o. 
Virgil Georgic. lib. iii. 355. The fa£l is confirmed by a foldier and a philofopher, 
who had experienced the intenfe cold of Thrace. See Xenophon, Anabafis, lib. vii. 
p. 560. Edit. Hutchinfon. 
4 ; Buffon Hifioire Naturelle, tom. xii. p. 79, 116. 
