ON VINEYARDS. 
185 
It has been much difputed of late whether the various places 
in the different counties in England, which flill retain the 
A a name 
“ of Csefar, the rein deer, as well as the elk, and^the wild bull, was a native 
“ of the Hercynian forcft, which then overfhadowed a great part of Ger- 
“ many and Poland* * * § . The modern improvements fuificiently explain the 
“ caufes of the diminution of the cold. Thefe immenfe woods have been 
“ gradually cleared, which intercepted from the earth the rays of the fun.f 
“ The morafles have been drained, and. In proportion as the foil has been 
“ cultivated, the air has become more temperate. Canada^ at this day, is 
“ an exadl picture of ancient Germany ; although fituated in the fame pa- 
“ rallel with the fineft provinces of France and England, that country ex- 
“ periences the moft rigorous cold. The rein deer are very numerous, the 
■“ ground is covered with deep and lading fnow, and the great river of St. 
“ Lawrence is regularly frozen, in a feafon, when the waters of the Seine 
“ and the Thames are perfectly free from ice.^: § 
From the moft early ages, wine is mentioned by the Hijlorians and Poets, and 
“ feems to be almoft coeval with thefirft produ£lions from vegetables: The 
“ grapes became, at firft, a ufeful part of their aliment, and the recent ex- 
“ prefled juices a cooling drink. Thefe, by a fpontaneous fermentation, 
“ foon 
* Cafar de Bell., Gallic, vi. 23. The mojl inquifitive of the Germans were ig- 
norant of its utmof limits, although fome of them had travelled in it more than fixty 
days journey. 
t Cluverius (Germania Antiqua, lib. iii. chap. 47.) invejligates the fmall and 
fcattcred remains of the Hercynian wood. 
% Charlevoix Hi/loire du Canada. 
§ Hifory of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, by Edward Gibbon, 
Efqj vol. i. chap. ix. p. 218. 
