The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1872-05-14

shade. We seemed to have passed int
midsummer at single bound. The in
habitants of the Atlantic States swelterec
and broiled uhdor a torrid sun. Ther
the ightnings flashed again, rainburst.
poured, tornadoes swept the earth anC
vivid auroras Illuminated the midnight
sky. All was convulson.
PreSto' what change, Suddenly 0
wave Of cold nipped every green thing
A furious norther moved down the Cal
ifornia coast. Frost invaded all the val.
ley of the Mississippi clear down to Mem.
phis. At Albany the mercury in the
glass sunk 50o in enc hour At Ports
mouth, NH. "such changes in tempera.
ture never were known" The thermom.
eter, which on Friday said 29o at SUM-
rise and 7So at noon, and on Saturday
40 at sunrise and $50 at noon IA rise
of 500 in few hours), now fell to the
freezing point, as it did everywhere else
So cold was it at Omaha. where it had
stood among the nineties, that on the 10th
two persons in the vicinity were reported
frozen to death. These extraordinary
thermometrical ranges in America are
subject of wonder and inquiry to the
people of England. Are they not also
mystery to us? Who can explain themf
We have known the mercury to fall sixty
degrees in ten hours in Northern New
York. There was on those memorable
April days some general elemental dis.
turbance which men do not understand
1t was phenomenal In Scotland the
first half of April was cold and frosty
and on the 19h snow fell all over that
country Thus passed the month. The
guesses of some who predicted it would
freeze all summer were not wide of the
mark.
The unusu; features of May are quick
ly sketched. Ripe cherries with heat
and drouth ia California with snow drifts
on Mount Washington, New Hampshire
twenty feet n depth on the 1st, sudden
cold in Marie forming'icicles on the fences
during a shower on the 10th, six inches
of snow fellat Randolph, N. H., on the
llth, ice formed on the north shore OF
Lake Chamoain on the 18th, cold in
England anl Scotland with snow on the
18th, and aremarkable cold day at Paris
on the 18th Then came intense heat on
Sunday, the 2lst, the last week bring
ing terrible rain bours, after weeks and
months of drouth, with fearful convulsion
Of the elements, and temperature Of
from 95 . to 997 in the shade.
The month of roses came-not all roses
The Sd, lth, 9TH, very hot, with thunder
all around the skies, Is the contagiop Of
crime in air? Crime and violence in.
creased with the heat. The weekly ar.
rests in the city of New York, averaging
1900 or 400 in mid-wnter, now ran up
to over 1000, and the mortality bill oi
London June All showed 50 deaths by
violence in a single week. On the 18th
there was seen the remarkable phenomen
on of snow in Valparaiso, S. A., while or
the 22d snow to depth of six or eight
inches fell in the Jura "Such an event,
said Galignani, "hardly fortnight be-
fore the summer solstice, has only happen
ed once before since the commencement
of the present century" The same week
California suffered with intense heat. On
tho 'f.h Shields in Scotland had smart
snow storm, while the Both brought q
killing frost in northern Vermont June
3, las also May 1S) was remarkable
cold day at Paris, so much so as to call
the attention Of the secretary of the
Academy of Science, who invited com.
municatlons respecting the extraordinary
degree of coldness and its cause. But il
Iceland June was warmer. and the ther-
mometer II Q higher than the mean for
the four preceding Junes. The average
temperature ran up to 80 ., and with
winds that blew continually from the
southwest, the heat of the valleys was
termed 'insupportable." Variety enough
for June.
July was freaky in horrible heat and
exceeding cold. The middle of the month
Paris broiled under n tropical sun. II
was little less hot in the United States.
At Denver City the thermometer went
up to l05 . in the shade. "the hottest
ever known said the telegraph. Dur
ing the week, between the 9th and 10th,
the heat killed by the diseases it engen.
dered 80 under two years of age, out OF
the S57 souls that died in New York
city, while so full of electricity was the
air that thunder-bot from clear sky
struck dead an Ohio farmer in his field.
This was followed by cold streak, the
thermometer falling marvelously. On
the Goth it showed Ice above the freez.
ing point in West Virginia. The next
day snow fell in Casadaga county, N. Y,
to a depth Of six inches, so that at Forest
vile the boys in the streets vigorously
-balled each other for a quarter of
an hour The same day South New
York and North Pennsylvania had hail
50 deep that sleighs were run upon it
through the streets On the 22d a white
frost fell at White Sulphur Spa, Va,
while the following nights witness hard
frost at Royalston, Mass, and in North
ern Ohio, with corresponding GOODNESS
everywhere on the same line of latitude.
July actually went out with sleighing on
hail stones that fell deep aud destructive
at Albion, Wis.
Equally remarkable was the following
month for sudden changes of temperature,
with unwonted cold. The whole month
was as cold in Yorkshire and other parts
of England, as that good coal fires were
needed for comfort, while at the same
time there was thunder and lightning
almost continually, sometimes there oc-
curing three thunder storms day. The
| 9th in this country was the hottest day
of the season; but while on the 18th at
San Bernardino, Cal, the mercury went
up to the frightful figure of 1l20 in the
shade, a cold wave of air streamed over
the Eastern United States, frost appeared
the mercury on Mount Washington fell to
Il q. 4